Lylia Letum and Kayla Hartland's The Flight
by Kermitwaffle
Summary: Lylia Letum and Kayla Hartland are two normal Muggle girls. Except they're not normal. And they're not Muggles. But they are girls. "Kayla, we're going to Hogwarts!" "... What?" Mostly O.C., but with some of the series' characters. Sequel is published!
1. The Prologue

Prologue: To B&N… or NOT to B&N

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Kayla Hartland loved to sleep. Yes, it was almost certainly one of her favourite things to do. She loved sleeping_ late_ even more. But this morning, on September 5, Kayla was violently dragged out of bed by her best friend and tossed, half-awake, into a van.

"Nooo…" she groaned. "Leave me alooone…" Her chestnut eyes opened halfway to look hazily around the interior of the vehicle. Its crevices were still too dark in the pre-dawn tinge of violet on the horizon to make out much other than the seats. A half-conscious hiss from a cat's crate by her head alerted Kayla to her company.

"Lylia… Why did you stick your cat in this cage…?" Kayla peered at the Bombay, black cat in the crate, not yet raising her head from its comical sideways pose.

"She's coming with us! Shadow loves a good road trip!" smiled Lylia into the rearview mirror as she pulled out of the driveway and took off down the road, idly running a hand through her red-blonde hair. The cat, Shadow, simply yowled in disagreement. "Besides- the sign said we could bring a small pet."

"Sign…?"

"Yeah! The one at the Barnes & Noble we're going to!" Lylia's azure eyes twinkled cheerily, absurdly so at such an early hour.

"I swear to God, Lyl, if this ends up to be another surprise trip to Mexico…"

A half-hour later, approximately 6:50 A.M., the sun was stretching its arms lazily over the shedding trees as the van passed. Its metallic form pulled to a stop in front of the bookstore, upon which time Lylia hopped out and yanked open the door for Kayla. The latter yawned drearily as she stepped out; limber enough to at least give an illusion of mobility. Grabbing Shadow's crate, Lylia guided her friend into Barnes & Noble.

A change had overwhelmed the once-quaint shop. Two stories up and a giant cavern, the store seems far larger on the inside than the outside. Fantastic banners of all colours dotted the walls and bookshelves. Harry Potter memorabilia adorned the store like an illusionary sheet, declaring the locations of Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans and Chocolate Frogs. The pair of girls stared in amazement, shocked not only by the new decorations, but by the vast emptiness of the store in spite of its clearly open state.

To answer their bubbling questions about the huge absence of people, a tall, lanky man with green eyes and short brown hair cleared his throat behind them. "You're late."

"For a very important date?" supplied Lylia as she spun around.

"You're here for the exam, right?" the man rolled his eyes. He couldn't have been over 4 years older than them. Late teens somewhere?

"Yeah, let's say that," the blonde clapped her hands together.

"Follow me," he took Shadow's crate without another word and turned, heading for a door at the back of the chamber. Lylia blinked as her cat was lifted, thinking of mauling the man to get it back, but instead decided to just follow, Kayla at her side.

The trio (well, a quartet if you include Shadow, but she wouldn't be best at hitting the necessary high notes anyway) entered an even larger, long hall. It had sparse furnishings: the only décor comprised of several dozen desks and chairs. The man nodded Lylia and Kayla to an empty one, at which they promptly sat. A pamphlet drew their eyes: in front of them each, on the desk, sat a W.O.M.B.A.T. test and quill. Lylia chuckled as she lifted her orange and red-tipped one, tickling herself on the chin. Kayla glared at a girl next to them who shushed Lylia.

"You will have sixty minutes," declared the same man, now at the front of the room. "Raise your hand when you have finished."

"Dear God, Lylia, what have you gotten us into?" muttered Kayla. Her friend could do nothing in answer but shrug, dip her quill into their shared ink bottle, and open her test pamphlet.

Twenty-two minutes into the test, Lylia was bored.

When Lylia got bored, people died.

Lylia was not to be kept bored.

To entertain herself, she began experimentally nibbling at her quill's feathery end. This earned her a bizarre look from the dark-haired shusher beside them. After a few more test-takers stopped in their writing to tacitly watch this display of self-amusement, the man at the front of the room rolled his green eyes for the second time that hour. Approaching her, he lifted her test book and looked through it.

"You're finished, then?"

Lylia smiled. "Yeah. It was fun."

The man stopped at the last page: it seemed as though half of Lylia's ink bottle had been 'accidentally' used as lava for a doodled volcano. Thankfully, Kayla seemed finished as well, so she didn't run short on the ink.

Sighing, he spoke up to the multitude of test participants. "I shall begin to escort you in pairs to the scoring area as you finish. Remain seated and silent, or I shall learn of it."

Lylia jumped up suddenly, knocking her knee against the desk with a thump. "Quick! Quick~! Run to the doors! YOU CAN STILL GO FREE!!! I'M A DIVERSION! I'M A DIVERSION!"

As his moment of panic passed, their proctor grabbed onto Lylia's jacket hood as she tried jumping up _onto_ the desk. "Get the bloody hell down from there!" Once she was yanked down, he retained his grip, drawing her to the door at the rear of the hall. Kayla shook her head, numb to the excitement after undergoing years of desensitization from her friend. She just grabbed her test pamphlet and followed, wary of the hundreds of eyes watching them leave. The blonde was not to go quietly, however, and she continued yelling enthusiastically as she was dragged along a narrow chamber.

"PROCTOR BRUTALITY!"

"Shut up," sighed the man. "It's not brutality."

"Then why am I being dragged?"

"Because you rub me. The wrong way."

Kayla threw in her two cents: "That sounded wrong."

Lylia's tone changed.

"PROCTOR HARRASSMENT!"


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One: A Blonde Slytherin Walks into a Scoring Room…

Disclaimer: Okay, so again- none of this is mine.

Well, I obviously wrote it, but you know- it's not under a copyright I own or… You know what, nevermind. I don't even care. It's way too early in the morning to care.

The long hall, through which Lylia was dragged, ended with a simple pair of oak doors, through which Lylia was also dragged. She, along with Kayla and their proctor, entered a spacious and comfortable chamber filled with sitting chairs and maroon carpeting. An oblong bench sat close to the back wall, and at that bench sat numerous 'stiffs' Kayla immediately surmised to be their test scorers. The brunette promptly snatched Lylia's test packet from their proctor's hands and delivered it along with her own to the nearest scorer.

Adjusting miniscule glasses and licking a fingertip, the receiving man ripped individual pages of scoring sections out of both test books and passed along each score sheet to their respective checking points.

"This'll be a minute," the green-eyed, lanky man informed the pair of girls as he released Lylia. "Make yourselves at home… But not _too_ at home, if you don't mind."

Lylia plopped down into a waiting chair next to their escort, crossing her arms in imitation of his stern pose. He simply stared at the very-interesting wall ahead of him, not making eye contact.

"Hey, Lyl- can I let Shadow out?" asked Kayla as she heard a familiar yowl from within the crate. At the blonde's affirmative, she unlatched the bolt restraining the cat and set the feline free. Hissing at the world, the black blur darted under Lylia's chair.

"So… Tall, Thin, and Awkward." Lylia looked sideways at the proctor. He glared over. "Got a name?"

"… Aidon," he answered tersely.

Lylia snickered. "Eye-duhn?"

"Aidon Haynes," growled the proctor.

"Like the underwear, then?" asked Lylia rhetorically.

A few of the strangers scoring their tests gave a stifled snort of laughter, Aidon's face going a beet red in infuriation. "N-_no_! Not 'Hanes!'"

"Finished," one of the scorers stated for the group. "Scores are listed highest to lowest. Kayla Hartland, you qualified for examination in three subjects: Quidditch, Transfiguration, and Charms. Lylia Letum; Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Care of Magical Creatures."

Aidon's jaw dropped in contrast to the girls' uncomprehending glances at each other. "Three subjects _each_?! But Muggles normally only qualify for _one_, if at all!"

"Maaaybe we're just special?" piped up Lylia.

"A second escort will arrive, taking one of you to the examination site," explained a scorer. "Mr. Haynes here will escort the other of your pair to the same location."

Small amounts of desperate light sparkled behind Aidon's emerald eyes: no longer having to deal with Lylia! The idea danced around his mind like a promise of eternal bliss.

A herald to his hopes, the doors behind them opened again, and in walked the blonde known as Draco Malfoy. Matured, robed in green and black, and less of an arse than he was in the books, nineteen-year-old Draco glanced around the room to spot his new charge for escort. The girls just kinda gaped.

"Oh, good, Malfoy," sighed Aidon in relief as he gestured to Lylia. "You'll be taking Letum and-"

"Drop dead, Haynes," Draco immediately bit back, instead nodding at Kayla. "You- come with me." Turning, he strode immediately from the room. Kayla glanced at Lylia almost fearfully before, still in shock, following her escort.

"What's your name?" Malfoy asked from her.

"Kayla Hartland," answered his charge as she fell into step beside him, confidence replenished from her natural spring of pride.

If he seemed surprised by her sudden and immediate casualty in his presence, Draco didn't show a modicum of it as the pair made their way out of the now-empty testing hall and to a back room of the bookstore. Opening a cupboard, he examined a sole pair of lightbulbs sitting on a shelf. "See that bulb on the right?"

"Yes."

"When I say three, grab it."

"Sure. Wait, what?"

"Three!"

Kayla jerked out her hand just in time to grab the bulb simultaneously with Draco, not altogether certain it was the best of choices as a famous jerk behind her navel sent her spinning away through the fabric of space, the portkey taking them far away.

Meanwhile, Lylia still sat leisurely in the waiting chair, quite content in using Aidon's back as a footrest. The proctor yelped a few times as he tried on hands and knees to grab Shadow out from under Lylia's chair, met with fierce and senile resistance from the black cat.

"Maybe I should do it. Lemme try," offered Letum as she made no move to aid, instead watching the ceiling.

Shadow hissed.

Kayla Hartland did not like being dropped by portkeys onto grass. No, it was decidedly one of her least favourite things to do. She disliked being dropped onto _wet_ grass especially.

However, this was the situation in which she found herself as the portkey deposited her somewhere conveniently on another continent.

"Welcome to England," commented Draco as he helped her up, having landed quite smoothly himself. Through the onslaught of English water from the skies, Kayla could make out a line of rain-beaten tents that seemed to be all marking the training site, aside from a lake not far away and, beside it, a promising sports field with three elevated hoops on sticks. Her escort nudged her in the direction of the nearest tent. "Go on- Transfiguration's in there."

Apprehension and tension wracked Kayla's nerves as she headed for the tent. At that same blip in time, Lylia was dropped on her face into wet grass. Aidon jerked her up.

"Next time I count to three, don't pretend to be numerically dyslexic. It doesn't work that way."

"But it was _so_ amusing to see you freak out."

"Go to the third tent down. Defense Against the Dark Arts awaits." Aidon gave his charge a light shove in aforementioned destination's direction. She just grinned and waved to him fondly before jogging to the tent through the downpour.

Inside both tents, a table sat. A pile of wands laid in a corner of each tent. In the Transfiguration tent Professor McGonagall herself greeted Kayla with a small smile and nod. Within the Defense Against the Dark Arts tent a stranger hooded in black stood silently, nodding minimally to Lylia. And so the exams began.

"You'll choose a wand," said Professor McGonagall, "and proceed to select an incantation with which you will attempt to turn this mouse into a bracelet."

The hooded man just stared Lylia down.

Kayla smiled and went to the corner, kneeling and starting to sort through the wands.

The hooded man vanished in the air with the loud pop of Disapparation.

Lylia blinked. "… Uh, yeah… Does this mean I pass?"

Three wand boxes later, Kayla pulled a long, thin rod of polished brown wood that sent pleasing warmth budding along up her arm, filling her chest with the heat of the sun's rays as it reached her heart. "… I think I like this one," she said a bit perplexedly before sitting at the table, across from McGonagall. Examining the small cage on the table surface, she noticed a list of spells carved neatly into its side. The mouse inside seemed to hold its breath in anxious waiting.

Lylia was about to leave the tent, when something caught her eye. A black line was forming under the sealed tent entrance flap. "… What?" The line widened and started to protrude towards the tent interior, as if someone was pushing a black sheet under the flap. "… Um…" A sickening sensation started to churn inside her stomach as her eyes remained glued on the silent, gliding black sheet.

"Lethifold," she mumbled in utter fear.

Finally deciding on the spell she believed to appear the correct one, Kayla aimed her new-found wand at the mouse inside its cage. As she neatly finished the chant, the tiny mammal squeaked once, twisted in on itself, and melded into a silver bracelet with a small charm on it in the shape of a mouse's paw. McGonagall's eyes momentarily bugged. After some time spent composing herself, she managed a surprised, delighted smile and stood.

"Why… Congratulations, Ms. Hartland!" breathed the professor as she shook Kayla's hand, sliding the bracelet onto her wrist. "I must admit, I'm in a dreadful shock… I've never before had someone succeed so tremendously at my exam!"

Lylia dove for the pile of wands, tossing box after box at the slow, leisurely-sliding agent of her demise. Considering the fact that Lethifolds are carnivorous beasts that live in the tropics and attack only when the victim is asleep, her next comment was not completely random:

"**Why the hell are you trying to eat me?!"**

Realizing that pelting the enemy with one's own weapons is not a prodigious tactical maneuver, Letum stopped throwing the wand boxes and started yanking each in turn open, examining the wand within each. A yellowish one was tossed aside, as was a brown one. She stopped as she was about to throw a white one, however. The strip of fair wood cooled her hand at the touch, sending a chill of rigor and release up her limb. Barely taking in the white flower engravings along its held end, Lylia stood up and scrambled back, aiming the stick at the Lethifold. Her mind raced to conjure up familiar Latin vocabulary.

"I-Incendio!" Flames leaped from the wandtip, signaling Letum's extreme luck at selecting a Latin word that actually _was_ a spell. It also signaled the end of her luck, however, as the flames clung to a wall of the tent and started to snake upwards. The Lethifold, not seeming daunted in the slightest, continued creeping along its ungodly path for its next meal. As rain-burdened smoke started to cloud Lylia's vision, she jumped on the table and aimed again. "Retexo!"

Not waiting to see if the extemporized attempt at an unweaving spell worked, Lylia leaped clear over the Lethifold and fled from the burning tent, taking off across the rain-drenched grass her best friend had come to loathe. Nearby viewers looked on in amazement and horror as the tent collapsed, harbinger of end to the Defense Against the Dark Arts examinations.

A few minutes later, Lylia met up with Kayla, both watching the flaming remains of a tent get extinguished by the last bits of rain the clouds had to offer.

"How'd your exam go?"

"Nicely enough- made a charm bracelet. Yours?"

"Alright. Destroyed a lethal monster intent on devouring me completely."

"Right. See you after the next exam, then!"

They parted ways, Lylia for the labeled Potions tent and Kayla to the marked Charms tent. The inside of the Charms tent was large but cramped, stuffed with numerous shelves on which hundreds of manhandled books made their homes. A portly but sweet lady with a round face greeted Kayla, while no one greeted Lylia in the austere, dark Potions tent but the silence of surrounding darkness.

Feeling her way to the back of the tent, the blonde girl found the knob of a door and, ignoring the oddity of its existence, passed through the door to the stone chamber beyond. Meanwhile, Kayla was introduced to the pleasant Wingardium Leviosa floating spell.

"You'll be levitating this feather through an obstacle course," stammered the brunette's examiner as she pointed to the series of hoops and blocks suspended overhead.

"You'll be getting rid of this box without leaving any pieces," stated a cool voice a few yards ahead of Lylia. The blonde jolted in alarm at its sudden appearance, then again as her own examiner, a lean and sour-faced lady, flicked on the enchanted candles dotting the room.

"R-right," Lylia answered noncommittally as she approached the stone table before her, upon which rested a styrofoam cube and numerous bizarre pieces of ingredients: a buttery, yellow substance; a greenish powder; some whitish cream; a match; a pomegranate; and some water.

As Kayla directed the feather through the obstacle course as carefully as humanly possible, Lylia started ripping up the block. The blonde's proctor sighed, apparently used to this behaviour from those taking the exam.

At they finished, Kayla's proctor commended her for the success and went to get some First Aid for her tongue- Kayla had bitten a good cut into it with all her concentration.

"I'm sorry, but you fail," said Letum's proctor.

Lylia stopped and repeated her words. "I fail?"

"You still left pieces behind, stupid."

Letum's cheeks flared a bright red at the insult. "If you weren't so discriminatory, you'd know that I was simply shredding the block to increase surface area!" Now irritated, she grabbed the powder, dumped it on the block, and proceeded to scrape a bit of the buttery substance onto the box. With a singular glare at her proctor Lylia upended the water over the cube. It gave a furious fizz and burst into foam before being eroded completely away.

"I'm sorry, but it's too late. I can't say you pass-"

A deeper, much graver voice interrupted. "I am no longer in need of your services. Leave."

Light from outside the dark interior of the tent momentarily blinded Lylia, but she could barely see a figure silhouetted against its light. "H-hello?"

A black arc of fabric blotted out the light before the door closed, footsteps echoing before a sallow, pale man with sharp features shoved Lylia against the wall by the table. Severus Snape analyzed the girl's face, then the mess the same girl made on the table.

"Ever heard of a beaker?" he asked coldly.

"W-well, I didn't know how strong a mixture it would be," stammered the pinned subject. "So I, well, figured the thick stone would be more reliable than a piece of glass."

Without another word, Snape released the girl, stared at her again, and left.

"… So does this mean I pass?" Lylia asked the silence of the tent.

Emerging a few minutes later, both of the girls went to their third exams: Lylia to the lake and Kayla to the makeshift Quidditch field.

"What position are you?" Lylia's initial examiner from Potions asked Kayla.

"Beater," came the immediate reply.

A blonde boy awaited Letum at the water's edge for Care of Magical Creatures, giving her a brilliant smile as she arrived. His beauty seemed to make the lake pale: a sharp gaze contrasted with the soft wave in his golden hair, his chiseled face gentled in its angles to seem almost angelic. "Hey."

"Hi!" smiled Lylia, much more interested in the lake than in the man beside it.

"I heard you're one of the two girls that qualified in three classes," he conversed while drawing up a net from a nearby bush's hold. Purplish-blue eyes sized up Lylia. "I'm Elden Lesperance."

"Lylia Letum. What's the exam, then?"

"Oh, you need to snag or catch one of three animals," the beautiful twenty-three-year-old explained. "This lake's filled with saltwater for this exam, so mind your eyes in it. There's a kelpie, a kappa, and a kneazle."

"I choose kelpie."

The boy laughed. "Good one. You know what a kelpie is, right? It drowns and devours people. The kneazle is practically harmless, and you just can't let the kappa get its hands around your ne-"

"Net, please." Lylia was not smiling.

His radiant grin failing, the examiner handed her the dark green web.

"Here, kitty kitty kitty," goaded Letum as she walked along the water's edge, giving a whistle afterwards. Hearing the summons, a lean, white horse with a permanently-dripping mane made its way into the shallows of the lake, eyeing Lylia.

Kayla's examiner tossed her a broom. "Get on."

The young brunette's eyes shot wide as kicking off from the ground sent her a foot into the air astride the beam of wood. "Whoa!"

"Catch, you idiot," chided the woman as she tossed a Beater's bat to Kayla and unleashed a Bludger into the air.

Kayla waited about ten seconds to give the woman a good, false sense of security before swiping at the Bludger and sending it straight into the back of the examiner's head. The woman wasted no time in falling unconscious as she hit the ground, relatively harmlessly.

"Hey!" waved the familiar voice of Aidon Haynes from the edge of the field. "We're late! Get a move on, Hartland!"

Groaning inwardly at being summoned by the awkward proctor, Kayla descended and dismounted the broom.

"Where the bloody hell is Letum?" demanded Haynes.

"Well, it's Care of Magical Creatures- she's probably by the _lake_," said Kayla as she pointed to where Lylia stood with Elden.

Inching forward, Lylia gave a noble attempt at looping the net over the horse's head. However, the horse's neck brushed against her hand in its retaliation, and so Letum found herself dragged bodily into the water, her hand's side firmly stuck by some magic to the creature's neck.

Aidon's jaw dropped as his charge vanished underwater with a demon-horse. "JESUS CHRIST!"

Kayla's jaw dropped as well. "Lylia!"

The pair sprinted toward Elden's amazed form on the lakeshore, Aidon grabbing his peer by the shirt collar. "What the bloody hell did you just let her do?!"

"She _chose_ the kelpie," answered the flawless face a split-second before Haynes let it go, dropping it unceremoniously into the mud left from the rain.

At that same point in time, Lylia's hand broke the surface of the water and waved a bit frantically for aid. Flailing out to the drop-off point, Kayla grabbed the hand and pulled her best friend up from the water that sought to claim her life. While she gasped and coughed up saltwater, Lylia held her free hand to her stomach and managed a smile. "T-thanks…"

"Are you alright?!" fretted Haynes as he ran in circles around the pair. "Did Lesperance let you get hurt?! Are you still breathing?!"

"I did _nothing_ to her!" growled the muddied examiner, rising and cleaning off his visage.

"We're late!" screeched Aidon in complete disregard for Elden's words, instead grabbing Kayla and taking off across the grass. Kayla took hold of Lylia's wrist and pulled her along as well. Lesperance flung mud from his hands as he glared after Lylia, all traces of his favor gone from his face.

He would never forget that girl.

Author's Note: Okay, people! Please talk to me! XD I'm uploading the first chapter now! I'm almost done with my rough drafts for all the other chapters too, so I'll upload more of them once I finish the edits and stuff. Unless, that is, no one's reading this- in which case I'll probably... post them anyway.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Twice as Good as Chapter One (NOW with MORE HOGWARTS!)

Malfoy awaited the peculiar trio at a dilapidated shack hunkered forlornly on a patch of mud. "You're la-"

"We already DID that joke," Lylia interrupted, looking pale as she held a hand to her gut, the jacket wrapped around it quickly reddening.

"Well, uh, let's get going." The Slytherin nudged them all, one after another, into the tiny hut. Kayla looked around questioningly at their tightly-cramped quarters, critical eyes glancing over every mossy plank of wood and rusty nail securing it to the next:

"What is it Rita said? 'This is cozy'?"

"The woman," Draco twitched.

"The monster," Aidon shuddered.

"The ladybug," Lylia swayed.

Struggling for elbow room, Malfoy closed the door to the hut and drew his wand from a pants pocket. He shut his eyes for just a moment, and with a flick of his wrist the entire shack lurched up into the air and soared off in a dizzying whirlwind, drowning out the alarmed shrieks of those inside.

A few minutes later, the shack made a messy landing on even more mud, the only difference being that _this_ mud was Scottish. Draco hastily exited the feeble hut and made way for a very green Kayla, who proceeded to dash over to a bush and empty her stomach of its most recent contents. Aidon didn't make it quite so far, instead dropping to his hands and knees a few yards from the hut.

Draco and Lylia went into Comfort Mode as the other two began to cease their unpleasant action.

"Are you quite alright?" asked Draco carefully as he rubbed Kayla's back.

"Are you quite done?" asked Lylia impatiently as she put a foot on Aidon's back.

After a few more seconds the four, along with Shadow in her crate, began to make their way up to a single carriage waiting on the outskirts of a forest.

"We're _quite_ late," mumbled Aidon worriedly as he loaded Shadow onto the enchanted carriage's top. "They even put the Thestrals back in their stables…"

"Remember to keep breathing," Draco answered with a sigh, boarding the coach with Kayla and Lylia. Once inside, he sat across from them and gave a grin. "You'll have to forgive Hanes. Everyone in his family's paranoid."

"I myself just live with Elise Cambridge," Kayla smiled at him. "She's been my guardian since before I can remember. Lylia stays with me too."

"Better than an orphanage," Letum threw in.

Aidon decided to speak up from where he sat in the driver's seat as the carriage tumbled its wheels over stone and grass. "Well, actually MY family comes from-"

"A long line of lingerie manufacturers," Lylia answered with a smile. "It's okay, Haynes. We understand."

Any grumbling emerging from the man was drowned out by Kayla's gasp as she grabbed Letum's arm, pulling her over in her seat to look outside the window with her. "Lylia… It's Hogwarts!"

The blonde's jaw dropped as well as she gazed out into the night, seeing the tall, proud spires of a sprawling and regal castle known in part by essentially every nerd on the face of the planet. Its moonlit angles and star-reflecting glass cast an ethereal glow over its entire landscape.

"It's not quite like the books," Malfoy commented as he leaned against his side of the carriage, "But it's quite nice. A lot bigger, though. Older students require more space, apparently..."

Lylia was the first to be tugged out of the carriage by Aidon, her wounded hand still clenched tightly to her form in the soiled jacket's wrappings. "This is… a dream, isn't it?"

Aidon answered by giving a pinch at her hurt arm. After she yelped, he replied. "Did that FEEL like a dream?"

Malfoy helped Kayla gently out of the carriage and led the small team inside the castle via a pair of massive oaken doors, claimed by Malfoy to be a 'side entrance.' Lylia was not stopped by Aidon's hand at the scruff of her neck, looking all about at the ornate walls around them and the timeless tiles beneath their feet while they traversed the halls until they were striding right up the front steps to the Great Hall.

Kayla risked a grin as Malfoy and Aidon went ahead of them to push open the huge doors, her eyes flicking over at Lylia. "How late do _you_ think we are?"

As the light from within the Hall spilled out over their forms, Lylia's eyes widened, staring straight ahead at the swarm of students that peered directly at them from four long tables.

"… _Very_ late," she whispered.

"Well, go on," Haynes nudged them forward.

"We'll be watching from our tables," Draco simultaneously assured them as they headed forward. Lylia lifted her hurt hand a bit from her jacket as it began to pulse once more in agony, but she quickly shielded it again as the blood elicited a wave of murmurs from the crowd. She and Kayla made their way to the cluster of other first-years as McGonagall came to their rescue, providing the Sorting Hat at which the students to stare, instead of gawking at the awkward newcomers. The Transfiguration teacher decided to skip introductions and went straight into the list of names.

"Melinda Appleby," she demanded politely.

The notorious shusher from Kayla and Lylia's tests glanced at them before bouncing her brown curls over a shoulder, trotting up to sit below the Sorting Hat. The otherwise tense silence of the Hat's ponderings was broken by Kayla rolling her eyes with much aplomb.

"Slytherin!"

Melinda, as the shusher was so called, beamed knowingly and skipped over to the emerald-bannered table, sliding onto the bench by Malfoy. The Slytherin Prefect gave a barely-noticeable wince at his new company.

Eventually,-

"Kayla Hartland!"

Kayla took her seat under the Hat and awaited its reply. Instead of immediately placing her, it whispered inside her head.

_"Hm hm hmm. Where do YOU think you should go?"_

The brunette blinked, taken off-guard by the unusual question. "… I… always thought I belonged in Ravenclaw…" She looked to the azure-bannered table.

_"No pressure, dear: I already know where I'm placing __you__. I just want your opinion first."_

"… I also felt a certain attraction to Slytherin, however…" Her eyes flicked over at the green table.

_"To put it simply, love, you DO possess his traits…"_

"To put it bluntly, Hat: I'll go anywhere but Hufflepuff."

"_Very well, then!_ Slytherin!"

Malfoy's expression turned uncharacteristically jovial as he stood and burst into joyous applause, much to the annoyance of Melinda beside him. Lylia laughed happily at the relief she saw on her best friend's face, her eyes doing all they could to not wander over at the Staff Table where a black-clothed man with a sallow face and dark eyes watched her from its end.

Soon enough,-

"Lylia Letum!"

The blonde slinked up to sit and be judged, jumping a little as the Hat whispered to her as well.

"_That's a rather nasty cut there."_

"Oh, uh… Yeah… I got into a toss with a kelpie."

"_A kelpie? You don't say, you don't say… They're said to be the spirits of the dead, you know."_

"Actually, I didn't…"

"_Oh, look at me- talking when there's placement to do. _Ravenclaw!"

Aidon stood from his post in the middle of the table, his Ravenclaw Prefect badge gleaming in contrast with the dull horror on his face. "NO!"

Elden let out a low hiss in displeasure, seated not far down from Haynes.

"Perfect," smirked Kayla cheerfully.

"Interesting," Snape commented into his drink.

Lylia flushed happily and walked shyly to the end of her new table, sitting at the end of a bench and giving a quiet glance over at her housemates, none of whom move to greet her.

With a clap of McGonagall's hands as she sat in the throne-like chair poised at the middle of the Staff Table, mounds of scrumptious food and goblets of rich drink sprang up along the tables. As the majority of the students dug in, aside from Melinda who ate an extremely small portion of food, the House Ghosts each soared in through the walls, floating along over their respective tables to greet the old and new. Try as Lylia did, she could not see Ravenclaw's ghost anywhere.

"She doesn't really show herself much," said the boy beside her, his unkempt chestnut hair half-hiding his face and giving him the friendly but demure appearance of a thin sheepdog. "You seem to be hurt…?"

"Oh," Lylia let a welcome smile shine through the taciturn shield of unfamiliarity that had divided them. "Yeah, I haven't quite seen how bad it is yet… So much commotion and-"

"Come with me," he stood with a smile that was wane in comparison but returned all the same, extending to her his hand.

"Draco," Kayla leaned over to Malfoy. "Who's the boy Lylia's leaving with?"

"Oh, that's Talem Kyker," Malfoy turned his head. "That's strange… He doesn't talk, really."

After finishing their dinner, they headed together to the Grand Staircase, where Draco guided Kayla through an ascending labyrinth of stairwells and portraits. Eventually they arrived at the level of the Hospital Wing, guessing at Lylia's location by her wound. As they stepped through the entrance, their target was immediately spotted, sitting on one of the beds in the dim light. A soft nighttime breeze rustled through the gossamer curtains that hid the open windows, casting caressing moonlight over the pair of Ravenclaws. Talem sat poised on the edge of the bed as he wrapped bandages around Lylia's wounded, treated hand. Her head turning to Draco and Kayla, Lylia smiled cheerfully and waved her free limb.

Kyker stood at seeing them near, just nodding politely and casting Letum one last glance of assurance before leaving quickly. The female Slytherin glanced after him before shrugging and going to Lylia's side to tug the other girl to her feet.

"Ready to head up to bed? We'll get in trouble if we're out too much later."

Lylia glanced over her shoulder at Talem's departure. "Yeah, okay. Good idea."

The group split at the Grand Stairwell again; as Draco led Kayla downward to the Slytherin Dormitories, Lylia found herself climbing stair after stair, up and up to the Ravenclaw Tower.

Malfoy slid onto one of the black leather couches adorning the green-tinged room, commenting, "It's not always so drafty down here. It's just late at night, since we're actually partway beneath the Black Lake." Kayla nodded in understanding, a delighted smile decorating her features as she drifted over to the shelves lining the area.

The newest Ravenclaw stepped hesitantly up to the eagle knocker blocking her way into the Dorm.

"What goes down the more it grows up?" it chirped inquisitively.

"Uhm…" she stated in answer.

"It's a riddle," the knocker explained. "You must answer it to enter, or wait for someone who CAN answer it. That way you learn."

"Crap."

"Well…?"

"Roots!" Lylia said quickly. "The older a tree is, the deeper its roots go!"

"Well justified," agreed the knocker as its lock unlatched to let her in.

Her eyes roved the room with open astonishment, not able to conceal her shock at the ceiling's height; the room's highly arched windows; the silver and blue silk curtains; and the deep, midnight-sky hue of the carpet. Her surprise drew her to one of the windows, where she gazed out wondrously over the Forbidden Forest and surrounding mountains.

A glint in the reflection, cast by the glass before her, made Lylia pause. She looked back over her shoulder, seeing Elden Lesperance seated against the opposing wall, on an elegant Victorian loveseat.

The elder student sipped blood-red wine from a transparent flute he held, his almost-purple eyes never leaving the fledgling witch. Crossing the room, he gave her barely enough time to turn and face him before he pressed one hand against the glass above her shoulder, leaning menacingly close.

"We may be in the same House," he murmured, making her shiver from the sweet scent of the wine on his breath. He threw the emptied wineglass over his shoulder, hearing it shatter with perfect accuracy in the fireplace as he continued, "But we are NOT comrades."

Lylia remained still for a good amount of time after he left, just staring at the fire.

The newest Ravenclaw awoke the next morning, in her dormitory bed, to the feel of a cold brush against her cheek. Opening her eyes, Letum saw the pale ghost of the Grey Lady floating over her, the midmorning sun filtering through her wraithlike hair.

"Jeeesus," escaped Lylia's lips as she bolted up and backed away, against her bed's headboard.

"I apologize," the spirit smiled softly. "I just felt drawn to you, and thought you might like company."

"Where's Lylia?" came Kayla's question as she sat by Draco at lunch. Talem was eating alone at the end of his table due to Lylia's absence, while Aidon looked relieved and Elden looked pleased.

"Probably resting. Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?" Draco asked back in an abrupt change of conversation.

Melinda choked a little on her tiny portion of egg.

"Really…? Yes!" Kayla nodded enthusiastically.

Upon being approached on the matter, Lylia later revealed in one of the numerous green courtyards that Talem had asked her to go with him to the very same celebration. The best she could discern was that the annual party was simply a last chance to enjoy oneself before the beginning of classes the following week.

And so, the two Slytherins met with the two Ravenclaws at the latter's table that evening for dinner. Melinda was hardly distraught.

"We'll be needing to go to Diagon Alley anyway for school supplies," Talem gave the group a shy smile. "If we get permission from a teacher to go one evening instead of during the day, it'd make everything so much easier to accomplish…"

"I could see about that!" chimed Kayla in response.

That being decided, the Slytherin pair returned to Melinda at their respective table. Kayla's smile unwaveringly prevailed throughout her entire meal, chatting gaily with her new escort.

"Do you like it here so far?" Malfoy hesitantly asked amid a dessert tart.

"It's amazing," she said after a drink of pumpkin juice. "This is all like some sort of walking dream…"

Melinda gave a snort and earned herself a glare from Kayla.

"There a problem?" hazel eyes bore into Melinda.

"You sound like some sort of fairy-tale princess," the accused gave a wicked glint of her own eyes over the rim of her goblet, pushing aside her still-untouched plate.

Kayla lowered her gaze to the rejected food. "Anorexic twit…"

In a second's passing, Melinda was standing, her expression venomous. "What was that?"

"Nothing at all," Kayla met the enmity of the eyes with a firm standing of her ground, her countenance carrying all the calm in the world.

"No, I'm QUITE certain you said something," goaded Melinda louder as she drew her sequoia wand.

By now a dangerous silence had fallen over the Great Hall. Lylia was quite literally hiding behind Talem, who had no idea what was going on.

"I said," Kayla politely replied as she drew her own wand and stood, "That you're an anorexic twit."

McGonagall rose amid the emptiness of sound. "Detention, Ms. Appleby and Ms. Hartland. Tonight."

Both girls cast each other one last glance before Melinda turned, grabbing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder as she bolted from the hall with her long brown curls bouncing every step of the way.

Once dinner had ended, Kayla and Malfoy met with Lylia and Talem near the entrance to the school. The enormous pendulum overhead swung back and forth in marking time as the sun cast its last dying rays across the clouds.

"Well…" Kayla began to formulate an apology to the group.

"No worries," smiled Lylia almost as quietly as Talem. "I bet I can find someone who'll give us permission for tomorrow. Just don't die in Detention, okay? And don't let Melissa kill you, either."

"I'm pretty sure it's 'Melinda,'" Kayla laughed.

Lylia just shrugged after Talem had clasped her hand and gone to bed. "'Mel' works either way as her nickname..."

"I'll show you the way to the Detention Hall," Draco offered Kayla as he looped his arm through hers. With the other Slytherin's consent, Malfoy left with Kayla down the hall, both determined to find the kitchens before the detention rooms.

Once the two had gone, Lylia found herself alone in the hall. She debated for a while in her head about whether or not to go through with her idea, but in the end she gave in and headed down to the dungeons.

Letum walked to the door she most suspected to be Snape's office, knocking at it timidly and reluctantly awaiting an answer.

"What could you possibly want at THIS hour?" growled the Potions Master as he opened the door, his fiery displeasure freezing at seeing his visitor. "… Letum?"

"I-I'm really sorry it's so late, Professor," stammered the gold-haired girl as she avoided his gaze, looking instead around at the damp and depressing brickwork. "I just wanted your permission for going out at night to Diagon Alley with three friends."

"Come inside," he uttered and drew her in by the arm, shutting the door again behind her once they were both in the dimly-lit room. Lylia remained rooted by the door as the teacher strode to the back of his study and vanished into the next room with a simple command: "Don't touch anything."

Meanwhile, Kayla watched avidly as Draco tickled a picture's pear and used it as a knob to open the kitchens. Heavenly fumes overwhelmed the pair of students along with their steps, the vapors guiding them into the sacred basking of rich aromas. House Elves hurried here and there around the room, cleaning and cutting and cooking. Upon spotting the two teenagers they stopped, staring. Within a minute, jubilant celebration broke out over the arrivals.

Severus Snape emerged from his office, with his formal notice of permission, to find Lylia Letum doing _exactly_ what he told her not to. She stood over a small burner she had placed on his desk, her gaze enraptured with a strip of Wolfsbane burning over it. Instead of catching flame, its heat-exposed end was shining a brilliant, dazzling white akin to a miniscule star.

Lylia turned her eyes to her hand as a cold, colourless one lay over it. "Professor…?"

"Just a little higher," he said quietly from where he stood right behind the girl, guiding her hand up just enough for the greater heat to send abdicant sparks steaming down harmlessly onto the desktop.

"It's amazing," Lylia breathed ecstatically.

Snape said nothing.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Two's Company, Three's a Crowd, and… Four's a Road Trip.**

After a peaceful rest in the dormitories, the students of Hogwarts descended bright and early for breakfast. That is to say, _most _of them awoke for it.  
Kayla was one of the first to rise and wash, her hair drying in the autumn's drafts as she munched on a fresh apple. Late but not absent completely, Lylia sat at the Slytherin table a few minutes before breakfast's end.  
"Are we ready to head out?" she asked with a grin.  
"If my joints can stand it," answered Kayla as Malfoy rubbed her shoulder supportively. "Detention was exhausting. Filing and paperwork: all night."  
"C'mon!" Lylia grinned brighter, hopping immediately up again. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" She grabbed Kayla's nearest limb and dragged her by the foot about a foot down the bench before Malfoy threw in his reinforcements, holding Kayla still.  
"Letum," he sighed. "Can't we take it easy for an hour?"  
"I see at least some of us are prepared to get going," Talem smiled at Lylia as he approached the Great Hall table at which the trio positioned themselves. "I notice that Melinda is missing this day... Perhaps she became ill after Detention?"  
"She wasn't here all morning," Draco said simply.  
"Can we leave NOW?" asked Lylia hopefully.  
"Do we even have a way there?" Kayla realized they had no method to go to Diagon Alley aside from train.  
"Err…" Draco cringed. "Didn't think about that…"  
Talem gave a soft laugh, raising a pouch. "That one's easy… Floo Powder."  
"Leave it to the Ravenclaws, hm?" Lylia shared a smile with the shy one.

The Ravenclaw lad guided the group to one of the Great Hall's fireplaces, tossing a handful of the dust inside his pouch into the fire. "Diagon Alley!  
"Alright, you first, Malfoy," Talem nodded the male Slytherin to the spiraling green flames. "Show them there's nothing to it."  
Casting Talem one last puzzled look at the outspoken conversation, Draco gave Kayla's hand a squeeze and stepped casually into the emerald inferno upon releasing her.  
"You next, Hartland," Talem nodded her onward. After Kayla had gone through, her breath held with every step, the Ravenclaw looked at his housemate.  
"Lylia? Are you ready…?"  
"Heh. Me, worried? Bah… Don't be silly…" The blonde's cheeks were a distinct pink as she rubbed the back of her neck, trotting past and hopping hesitantly into the fire.  
Talem's following chuckling was interrupted as he caught sight of a certain individual across the room. Elden Lesperance's violet-hued eyes glared steadily into Talem's caramel orbs, intimidating and dangerous.  
The younger Ravenclaw boy swallowed nervously, his long fringe clouding his vision as he bowed his head and followed the other three into the green fire and out to the crowded streets of Diagon Alley.

Kayla was still amazed by the time the entire quartet had assembled, her gaze overwhelmed in the tumult of the sheer activity. Stores and shoppers decorated the cobblestone and brickwork, loosing their contents between each other. Talem managed to grab Lylia before she could wander off.  
"I have your class lists from McGonagall and the money she's giving you two for supplies," he explained as he handed over a scroll and pouch of coins to each of the girls. "She wanted me to pass on the message that you each now have a Gringotts vault. Malfoy and I will go there now to get some more for you two to spend throughout the week and for other things. Meet back here at noon for Ollivander's. Alright?"  
"Sure," Kayla waved the males off with her free hand, unrolling her scroll with her other.  
Lylia looked about the famous Alley with a wary form of surprise, unfamiliar with the crowds of people. "Where do you wanna go first?"  
A single grin spread Kayla's lips. "Brooms." The pair made their way to Quality Quidditch Supplies, Kayla dragging Lylia by the hand. The splendor of the delight found only in this once-imaginary sport washed over Kayla in a wave as she ran inside, her eyes roaming over every robe and broom and glove and book.  
"Robes first!" she chimed and dashed away up the stairs to the long sheets of adorning fabric. A short, rotund clerk behind the register downstairs saw the dash of black and green take off up the stairs and decided to investigate before things got out of hand.  
"May I help you dearies with anything?" she asked engagingly to the duo as she found them with Kayla staring around in awe.  
Lylia pawed awkwardly through a line of black, velvet robes. "Yeah, we're looking for robes-"  
"Well, this is exactly a great place to look for them!" the petite lady grabbed Kayla by the waist and practically hurled the poor girl into a dressing room. Lylia ran quickly into the neighboring one before she could receive the same treatment.  
"What colours are you looking for, loves?" the stout attendant asked them.  
"Well, we each need some casual and some Quidditch ones," Lylia trailed off hesitantly…

After much pain at the hands of their exuberant cashier, the two girls exited the store with a shared grimace.  
"Scary," Lylia mumbled.  
"Bloody scary," agreed Kayla.  
"Books next," Lylia seized her chance to steer the journey away from the fearful woman waving at them happily from the store window, Kayla not minding in the slightest as she adjusted her new Quidditch gloves.

Flourish and Blotts held for them a wide variety of every possible textbook they could reluctantly acquire.  
"So what classes are you signed up for?" asked Kayla of her companion as they wandered the maze of classroom reading materials.  
"Uh, Defense Against the Dark Arts; Care of Magical Creatures; Divination; Potions; Charms…"  
"Sweet! I have Transfiguration, Charms, Quidditch, Care of Magical Creatures, Defense Against the Dark Arts." Kayla proceeded to pocket her class list.

"Aw, man," Lylia blinked as she examined her own list upon departure from Flourish and Blotts and a stop at a smoothie stand. "I have to go to 'The Apothecary'…?"  
"Dude. It smells awful in there," Kayla laughed innocently into a pineapple smoothie she had acquired along the way.  
"Great," sighed Lylia.

Snape sighed heavily, trudging down Diagon Alley to The Apothecary. Melinda was not far behind him, talking uproariously as they neared the rear of the establishment.  
"I mean, it wasn't even my fault! SHE insulted ME! There was nothing fair ABOUT it!"  
Severus Snape was not a patient man, but he managed to last quite a few minutes of this until reaching the safety of the store's back door.  
"I understand that your level of intelligence would lead you to pour out all your problems to me," he stated over his shoulder as he vanished inside and slammed the door shut behind him. "But you _must_ learn this: I really could not care less."

The Apothecary was a miserable store huddled along one side of the Alley. Lylia winced upon seeing its carbuncled blot among the cheerful shops. "So that's the place?"  
"Have fun," chuckled Kayla teasingly as she picked off the last bits of pineapple smoothie from the bottom of her cup and waved goodbye to her best friend while leaning against the poor store's wall. Lylia made a face as she went inside, her stomach beginning to twist at the horrid scent assailing her within.  
"I didn't… imagine it would be _this_ bad," she wheezed between a few gags, crouching down in the dusky room. A pale hand took her arm and dragged her up to her feet once more, looping through her arm and beginning to guide her through the store. She kept her watering blue eyes focused on the floor as her unknown helper guided her, her mind distractedly noticing the shepherd placing different ingredients into her bag as they went along.

Kayla canted her head as Lylia stumbled out of the shop, and so the concerned friend went to kneel at her side upon the blonde's collapse. "Hey! Are you alright?"  
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Lylia coughed in an attempt to clear her throat of the awful scent. "Someone helped me and such... They paid and everything…"  
"Awfully nice stranger," was all Kayla said as she raised her eyebrows.

"I think that's about everything," the Slytherin girl beamed as the pair trekked one last time along the roads. "Except for pets!"  
"We'll be going to the Menagerie, then." Lylia pointed out the animal store in question and led her friend to it. "I don't need any other pets than Shadow, but you'll probably want one…"  
"A snake!" Kayla made the decision instantaneously as they slipped in, her feet taking her off to the back wall where rows of terrariums poised themselves. "I definitely want a snake!"  
"I think… I'm going to look at bridles…" Lylia tore her gaze away from a white rabbit turning itself into a hat and started to examine the other merchandise.  
"Are you going to go after the kelpie?" Kayla cast her a worried glance even while taking a venomous reptile from its tank.  
Lylia said nothing, confirming her friend's concerns, but she strolled to the snakes as well.  
"I wonder what kind _you_ are," Kayla crooned to the expansive snake coiled around her.  
"That's… a king cobra," Lylia took a small step back. "It's the largest venomous snake in the world."  
"Other than a basilisk?" the brunette teased as she pet the obsidian creature hugging her. "I wonder what to name her… Something dark…"  
Lylia paid for both the snake and a black bridle decorated with gothic crosses, the expenses covered with some of the money McGonagall had personally bestowed unto them. "There's always the Greek word for night… 'Nyx.'"  
"Nyx," Kayla smiled endearingly down into her newest friend's cage as they headed to the wand shop. "I like that…"

Malfoy watched Talem thoughtfully as they went to Gringotts and were waiting to be escorted to the girls' vaults. "Kyker," he spoke up.  
"Yes, Malfoy?" The boy's nature was shy and demure once more, his thin arms folded.  
"I am most surprised by you being so conversational to your housemate." Draco made the approach casual, examining the cards on which the vault numbers were recorded. "Last year, when you were new, you didn't speak a word."  
"You mean Lylia, then," the younger boy let his bangs fall before his eyes as he smiled wanly. "Is that it?"  
"I simply want to understand why you've changed. Don't pull Ravenclaw paranoia out on me."  
"It's nothing quite so complex," Talem smiled gently across the bank, gaze focused ahead. "I simply understand that she felt lost and alone that first night at dinner. She's given me such a sincere friend. Also, she was injured when I first met her."  
"But to bind her wound yourself?" Draco grilled him all the more as they withdrew a few pouches of galleons from each vault.  
"I have nothing to hide. I find Lylia to be kind and sweet." The Ravenclaw emerged with his affiliate from the bank, and they made their way together to Ollivander's. "I do not, however, hold the same sentiments for the man antagonizing her."  
This caught Draco's attention.  
"And who do you believe that to be?"  
"That popular Ravenclaw in your year, with that dyed blonde hair… Lesperance." Talem no longer made eye contact with Draco, just watching the street ahead of them. "Lylia must have spited him somehow, but… He's taken to hassling _me_ now in her place… Maybe it's because of my friendship with her. A strength he'd rather not let her have…  
"But such is silly," he smiled bashfully to the Slytherin, waving as the two girls came into their view. "Hogwarts has been my home for over a year now. I'm in perfectly safe walls."

Together the four students met with the renowned wandmaker Ollivander.  
"If you'd be so kind as to let me see your wands," he offered the two females, "I'll be able to analyze them for you."  
Kayla drew hers first and placed it in the pair of waiting, aged hands. Ollivander gave it a good look-over, flicking it occasionally.  
"It's a very rich-quality wand," he commented to her with a note of pleasure. "Thirteen inches exactly, with a dragon heartstring."  
"Made in China?" asked Lylia good-naturedly.  
"Made from a sturdy, dark oak tree," Ollivander corrected her. With a wave of the wand, individual sparks of flame began to spurt from the wandtip and spiral down in slow circles. "These marks here, on its held end, are runes engraved as symbols for flame."  
Kayla held it with a new reverence once it was handed back to her.  
"Yours next, Miss." Ollivander looked over at Lylia.  
The blonde brought out her wand, watching it roll between her fingertips ponderously. The thin strip of wood had already saved her life, and she knew nothing about it. She wordlessly handed it over.  
"Fourteen inches… Spruce whitewood. The core is a kelpie tailhair." Ollivander peered closely at the albicant wand. Lylia turned white as well.  
"Kelpie…?"  
Ollivander paid her no mind, just going on in his study. "These patterns of black embossing it… They're in the shape of chervils."  
"What are chervils?" Lylia posed her second question.  
"Flowers," he responded as he returned to her the wand. "They represent mental depression due to their origin as an aid for such an ailment…" He flicked the stick, casting small glimmers of silver in a leisurely wave down from the wand.  
"That's very cheery. Thank you," Lylia took her means of both a weapon and a shield back guardedly, immediately pocketing it again.

"That's the end of today's adventure, then," Malfoy slid a hand into Kayla's as the two witches and two wizards made their way to the Leaky Cauldron for a Floo trip back to the castle.  
"We still have a few days before Hogsmeade," Kayla reminded him. "It's barely even the middle of the week."  
The quiet Cauldron welcomed them in and left them a clear path to the fire, where Talem drew out his small bag of Floo Powder. They departed from the calm buzz of Neville Longbottom's patrons and reentered the Great Hall.  
"Looks like this place isn't very busy either," noted Lylia.  
"That's because lunch is already over." Malfoy resisted the urge to point out the obviousness of it all.  
Talem just smiled behind a hand, caramel eyes twinkling.

For the first time since her Hogwarts start, Lylia Letum arrived at dinner on time.  
The same could not be said for Melinda's appetite, though the girl herself reappeared.

The following morning, Kayla finally got to sleep in. Oh, how she loved to sleep.  
The clouds over Hogwarts that next day were dark and oppressive, brooding over the castle and all the students confined within it.  
"Don't be so glum," Draco drew Kayla by the hand away from a stained-glass window. "There's still a lot to do inside the castle! C'mon… Let's look around. Where did you always want to go?"  
"I… think that'd be the Owlery," Kayla smiled despite herself as she was led through the long halls. She took in all the sights of birds of flight mixing about the rafters of the coop, the day's dreariness completely lost on her now.  
At the same time, Lylia made her way out through a courtyard and onto the expansive, rain-sodden Grounds, lightning flashing down over the Black Lake. A black form followed her to the lakeside before it barked a command:  
"Lylia Letum, do not go near a lake in the middle of a thunderstorm!"  
Severus Snape was not a patient man. He stared venomously at the aurulent-haired girl as she looked to him. "You will follow me," he declared factually before turning and leading her back into the establishment.

Talem intercepted Kayla at lunchtime, finding her sitting with Draco at the Ravenclaw table, where Lylia was apparently tardy to yet another meal.  
"Hartland," he asked gently. "May I have a minute with you?"  
"Sure," the Slytherin immediately agreed, wondering if it would explain Lylia's absence.  
They climbed level after level of stairwell and hallway, one guiding and the other following, until Kayla was led to a nondescript door just a short distance from the stair that brought them to their current passageway.  
"You have to promise that you won't tell anyone," Talem breathed happily as he put a hand on the door handle. As Kayla nodded her assent, he pushed the door open and stepped through the aperture, his company following.  
The thing Kayla saw next took away her breath and left her light-headed: a beast crouched on an enormous perch in the tall room's furthest corner, the light from the expansive window beside it casting illumination on the creature's nature. It was easily ten feet long (although, by the end of its growth it should become twice that size) and was adorned half in feathers and half in scales. Both elements of its composition were of soft gray and tender white from its colubrine tail to its avian head, and a dark beak marked the countenance of this majestic flyer whose liard wings were tucked neatly to its sides.  
"W…What is it?" stammered the stupefied girl.  
"He is Eli," smiled Talem affectionately to the animal as he went over to it and ever-so-calmly stroked its chest feathers. "Eli's an Occamy. They're very rare to wizards, since they're mainly just sought out for their silver eggs. Come on over- he's very docile…"  
Kayla allowed herself to overstep her hesitation, approaching the master and pet. Eli eyed her thoughtfully, his head giving a benign tilt to let her shaking hand brush the plumes on his neck.  
"He's wonderful," she managed to say after a while, all of her anxiousness turning to admiration for the Occamy.  
"Even when I didn't have any friends last year," Talem explained as he stroked the creature's flank, "Eli has been here for me… I can spend days up here with just him for company, and not miss out on a thing of Hogwarts."  
Kayla looked questioningly at him. "But, Talem…? Isn't Lylia your friend too?"  
"Oh, yes," the shy boy turned his aeneous gaze to the window. "I should think so. You are too, in a way… Kayla."

Lylia reappeared that evening for dinner, carrying a leather-bound book not acquired from the library. Its scribbled pages were overflowing with incantations and spells, each described in detail below the name; and Lylia rarely looked up from it to lift her fork or goblet. Talem sat beside her without a comment on the book, subdued in his dinner and avoidance of a luteous-haired man staring with great enmity at him from down the Ravenclaw table.  
To add to the insular nature of all within the group, the Slytherins of it as well were quiet. Melinda made no eye contact with anyone as she ate her sparse portions, her expression pallid and hands white. Draco resigned himself to a silent meal upon realizing that Kayla was not in a loquacious mood: her mind was still filled with the glory of an airborne species to which she had just earlier been exposed, and there was little room in her mind for anything aside from the image of Eli.

The next days graced them with equal grayness, and yet again Lylia was ushered by their call outside. She kept her focus leisurely on the pages of arcane delights, across a bridge and through a field until she was disrupted by unwritten magic sailing by her head.  
"IT'S A WIZARD SNIPER!" she gave a shriek and dove into the grass. "DON'T TAKE THE SHOT!"  
The next thing she felt was a large man pulling her to her feet and consoling her. "There, there, take it easy. There ain't no shooter!"  
"Whuzzat?" Lylia blinked as she calmed, dusting herself off.  
"This is the Hufflepuff Dueling Club!" grinned the rotund student that had helped her up. His face was friendly, but his black and yellow sweater mixed badly with his stature and brought the image of a bumblebee to mind. "You might get hit if you're not careful!"  
"You guys… have your own club for it?" The Ravenclaw tilted her head.  
"Of course! Are _you_ into sparring and that sort of thing? I'm Hank, by the way." He tried twirling his wand and dropped it within three seconds.  
"I'm Lylia Letum," she gave him back his makeshift baton (not that anyone wants to see him in the leotard). "Nice to meet you… I never really dueled."  
"Oh, you'd love it!" Hank looked as though he threatened to bounce with his jubilant disposition. "You come to us if you want a good duel!"  
"Thank you for the invitation," Lylia nodded and continued on, book reopening. "I'll remember it!" The cluster of other random bumblebee impersonators waved goodbye to her as she left.  
"Bloody badgers," she mumbled with a grin.

Consumed in her reading and pleasant conversations with Talem, Lylia barely registered the difference in the air as the day of the Hogsmeade celebration arrived.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Out of the Prefects' Bath, Into the Fire

Before going down to breakfast, Aidon Haynes decided to indulge in the perks of being a Prefect of Hogwarts.  
Namely, the Prefect Baths.  
With this delightful notion in mind, the brunette trotted dutifully off to clean himself, his clothes for the Hogsmeade celebration in his arms. Much to his surprise, there was humming emerging from the Baths as he entered.  
"Hello…?" he asked cautiously, stepping through the thick mist spilling over the marble steps and approaching the sacred pools of aromatic sanitation.  
"Hanes!" smirked Lylia from where she was sitting quite contentedly in a bubble bath. "Sorry, is this where you sell your esteemed undergarments? I can see the targeting of an audience being put to use!"  
Aidon had a heart palpitation. "Letum! Get out of the-"  
"Can't do that, dear Skipper," the blonde's answer lilted through the echoes of the tall chamber. "You see, I'm already in the bath. You're between me and my towels, as a matter of fact."  
"That's irrelevant! Get out!"  
Lylia just smirked all the more, her arms folding under all the bubbles that concealed her from the neck down. "Think, Gilligan. Think. You don't want me to get out right now."  
The Prefect simply refused to catch on. "Get out right now, or I'll- I'll summon Professor Flitwick!"  
"As concerned as I think he'd be about how lacking this bathroom is in pomegranate body wash, I don't think you should be summoning him."  
"And why is that?" Aidon was by now completely flustered.  
"I'm a female, my dear Aidonfish."  
"I'm sorry? What _about_ it?"  
"You're a male. In my presence. In this situation."  
To this Aidon paled. "… Oh."  
"There you go, Starfish!"  
The Prefect left quickly.

Lylia reported to breakfast that morning smelling exceptionally of bamboo and cherry blossoms. Aidon sat by himself this time.  
"Lyl?" Kayla perceptively asked as she plopped down next to the Ravenclaw with Draco. "Have you been sleeping well?"  
"More or less," the accused answered evasively, unwittingly shifting the leather tome under her arm that had been so occupying her nocturnal hours. In retrospection, anyone would agree that it was better than encouraging her noctevagrant tendencies of past adolescent years.  
"What's this?" Draco slipped it out from her hold and opened it.  
"Mine!" the Ravenclaw made a dive.  
"Yeah, but where'd you _get_ it?" Kayla caught the book as Draco tossed it to her.  
"I found it on the floor! No. It was a gift!" Lylia did a double-take. "No. It was in the Library. Yes... Maybe."  
The other two paused, watching her.  
"It was a gift, from the floor, in the Library." Kayla raised her eyebrows.  
"Correct." Lylia put on her most credible expression of confidence.  
"I'll… give you some time to get your story straight," the Slytherin girl returned her book to her, patted her head with much ruth, and stood simultaneously with the male Slytherin. "Draco and I are heading off for Hogsmeade after we get changed. See you there, alright?"  
"Right!" the yellow-haired one saluted. "If you see Talem, let him know I haven't bailed out on him!"  
"Because _that's_ likely," Draco commented sarcastically and led his date away.

"Letum," Aidon announced as he approached the Ravenclaw finishing her meal of muffins galore. "They're almost done sending out the trains. We should be going… if you'd like."  
Still biting halfway into a supreme, banana bread grain product, the blonde just nodded in consent, her blue-topaz eyes marking her surprise at such civility from her superior.  
The pair later emerged from a train at Hogsmeade, Aidon in a frightfully tacky, sky-blue suit and Lylia in a floor-length dress coloured as the flower known as baby's breath. While Aidon's suit blessedly was bereft of white frill and lace, Lylia's dress carried both quite naturally in its layered skirt and feminine bodice.  
Talem awaited the pair with Draco and Kayla at his side. The two males tried their utmost best to not giggle like small children upon seeing Aidon's gender-confusing three-piece. Their own suits were simple, neutral colours with a tie to match their house: Draco's was green; Talem's, blue. As for Kayla, she wore a knee-length green and brown dress that flitted about her legs so fluidly when she moved to hug Lylia that it seemed a woven fragment of nature itself.  
"Sorry that I kept you waiting," Lylia said at Kayla as she drew out of the hug, examining her best friend's dress. "Wow… Those colours suit you so well!"  
"Well, I could say the same about yours!" laughed the dark-haired girl while she blushed and began off down the path. The rest of the group followed, save for Aidon, who slinked away for an innocent drink or five at the Hog's Head. "Where are we going first?"  
"I vote Honeyduke's!" blurted Lylia as she pointed at the sweets shop not far down the road. Talem gave the same chuckle as always, holding onto her arm to keep the blonde from darting ahead of the gang.  
"Sounds good," agreed Draco. With Kayla's consent as well, the four traveled down to the sweet tooth's veritable paradise. Not long after, they departed the building, each with a confectionary conception of heaven: Talem carried a Chocolate Frog; Lylia munched on a strawberry lollipop; Draco stored away a chunk of peanut butter fudge; and Kayla finished off a small but scrumptious slice of pure white chocolate. While the other three eliminated their snacks and disposed of their trash near the Shrieking Shack, Talem just clasped the Chocolate Frog, still in its case, and observed the eerie silence of the abandoned abode.  
"Hey…" smiled Lylia reassuringly by his side. "Are you okay?"  
"I-I apologize," Talem started, but he afterwards returned the smile. "I just get frightened easily… My flaw, you could say. Cowardice."  
"You've never been cowardly around us!" Kayla eavesdropped and came to the support of her newest friend. "In fact, Draco probably thought you were a mute before you and Lylia got close!"  
"That's an unfair assumption…" muttered Draco as he wiped his mouth of any remaining fudge morsels, his face a bright pink.  
"Let's get to that party," Talem responded and began shifting his frail frame's steps in the direction of the Three Broomsticks. "Lylia, do you have a pocket where you could put this?"  
"Hm? Oh, yeah," the blonde first-year accepted the Chocolate Frog and tucked it into one of the many skirt layers. "I'll keep it right by my wand's pocket."  
His smile reflected in his soft eyes, Talem guided the troupe to the fiesta.

Inside the Three Broomsticks, tables and chairs had been pulled close to the walls, leaving plenty of room in the center of the swept floor for dancing. Multicoloured streamers hung from the ceiling and lights, and merry music wafted down from somewhere around the rafters. While Draco and Kayla enjoyed dance after dance, Talem seemed peculiarly taken to standing aside, near a table. Lylia was just fine with this; she had never really danced before anyway.  
McGonagall sat beside Snape at a table close to the door, her interest piqued in the black-clothed man's attendance. "Severus, I was quite surprised to see you show up today. You've never accepted my invitations to come to this unofficial get-together before…"  
"I needed to get out of the castle for a while," the Potions Master improvised a fast lie.  
"You should really go dance," Talem looked sideways at his companion. "I'm sure someone would dance with you."  
"Why not you, Talem?" Lylia retorted with a friendly smile.  
"I'm not… feeling so well," the diminutive boy pseudo-casually tossed his bangs out of his face. Such a statement was not a complete lie: he was indeed very uneasy. The cause for his disconcertment stood just a small distance down the wall parallel to them, his amethyst-tinged indigo eyes blazing unsparingly at Talem.  
The poor boy's resolve snapped within a few unbearable minutes, his clammy hand reaching to take Lylia's wrist and lead her out of the cheerful room, and out of the Three Broomsticks, via an old back door. "I need a bit of air…"  
"Alright, Talem, we can go as long as you'll be okay…"

Elden Lesperance straightened off of the wall and followed the pair at a distance, his hand already going for his wand. Thankfully, Kayla caught sight of the beautiful man and stopped her dancing.  
"Something's not right, Dra… C'mon."  
Elden took an idle note of his own followers, closing the back door behind him and locking it with a small flick of his wand. Lylia looked over Talem's shoulder where they stood together in the back alley, her pulse skipping about at seeing the intimidating prodigy.  
"Talem, it's…!"  
"I was going to just wait and speak to you privately," Elden addressed Talem with a malicious glint in his violet eyes, raising an ebony wand. "But since I have two annoyances in one place, why not get rid of them both?"  
"Y-you're… the three-year champion of the Dueling Tournament here," the victimized Talem offered, shakily raising his own wand. "That means you must understand honour… If I agree to duel you, right here and now… Will you promise to leave Lylia and me alone, if I win?"  
The shallow smile that crossed the fourth-year bully's lips sent an unholy shudder down Lylia's spine.

Kayla gave a worried huff as the door refused to open. "I'm certain they went this way, Draco!"  
"From what you showed at your entrance exams, you're brilliant at Charms," Draco inserted with a serious but calm demeanor. "Try using Alohomora on the door while I go around the building, in case that doesn't work." He gave her hand a squeeze before running off through the crowd of people busy in their festivities.  
Focusing all her sincere need to aid her oldest friend and newest comrade, Kayla pictured their faces before clearing her head to concentrate on the spell. Flicking her wand in accordance to how she always remembered it being shown, she whispered the word. "Alohomora."  
At the same second as the door's lock magically unlatched and Kayla turned the knob, Talem Kyker was sent crashing through the solid wood and into the girl who had put forth her all to aid him.  
Ignoring the breath that refused to fill her winded lungs, Kayla rose to crouch over Talem's curled-up form. "Talem! Talem!"  
"I-it hurts…" the Ravenclaw managed to utter before he coughed blood into his hands.  
"Where?"  
"… I-inside… But please… Please, help Lylia…! Go!" The wounded boy's last word was a deflated howl of supplication. Kayla ran as fast as she possibly could out the door.

Lylia stared in complete horror after Talem had been hurled through yards of air and a solid slab of wood with a mere flick of Elden's wand, her feet daring a step forward. Elden's eyes glinted dangerously as he turned his black weapon now to her, not allowing a single foot closer to him or the former door that was behind him. Her fear and anxiousness melted into a white-hot fury as Lylia drew her own wand.

Kayla raised her wand preparedly and made her way out to both the pale light and the awaiting duo of dichotomous opposites in personality. Elden jerked his head at hearing her footsteps on the stones. As his armed hand pointed at the newest arrival, Lylia aimed her wand threateningly at him.  
"Don't you DARE-" she began.  
"As if YOU could STOP me!" barked the infuriated attacker, his sculpted features all sharp and promising pain while his attention again turned to the fractious blonde.  
An oppressive, choking silence descended on the three; it held them each together in solitude and separate in their emotions save for one: utter loathing.  
In that dear, precarious moment, the Three Broomsticks swallowed the three's tension along with all the surrounding air and released it in a ground-rocking explosion of the building's roof.  
The three outside took a collective step back from the building in pure, unadulterated shock, all of their eyes glued on the deadly blossom of smoke and flame that was currently issuing from the now-wailing establishment. Its front doors burst open in a flurry of frantic escape, releasing the dozens of coughing inhabitants that sought the clean air for their starving chests. Professor McGonagall pushed students here and there out of the pub, yelling at Prefects to direct them off to a safe distance.  
As the chaos erupted all around, passerby screamed out and dove for cover, shielding their heads and necks as if to blot out the travesty before them. Kayla darted toward the building, Talem's name on her lips, but a rough hand snatched her by the shoulder and swung her into Draco's tight, protective hold.  
"NO!" he shouted above the tumult and the inferno. "I'm not about to LOSE you! Someone tried to grab me in there before this happened; I'm not gonna let you go into God-knows-what NOW!" He kept his hold on her hand, running off with her to the cluster of displaced and disoriented people forming a ways off from the maelstrom of danger previously known as the Three Broomsticks.  
Kayla went without feeling her feet moving, her hazel eyes going to see Lylia behind them. "Lylia! Come on!"  
Lylia observed the pair silently, now completely alone in her mind; she looked at Elden's departing form as well, and then she simply took a deep breath and charged into the burning building. "TALEM!" was her forward cry.

By then it was too late: McGonagall had raised her wand, conjuring a breath of the wind itself to lift around each student and teacher outside and Apparate them all inside the Great Hall. Kayla's scream of protest was drowned helplessly in that momentary roar of the air, her soul held only at bay in her Headmistress's magic by the hand on her shoulder gripping her tighter than humanity's cling to life itself.  
The Prefects all stepped forward to the Staff Table with McGonagall, receiving her orders:  
"Take emergency roll of every student in your House. Immediately. Report to me the very second you are done, and don't you forget what could be at stake."  
Other teachers had by now entered, their hurried steps adding to the Hall's thunderous sound of every heart's desperate pulse. Kayla was drawn to her House's table by Draco despite all her struggles to get to the one teacher who might be able to help her, McGonagall.  
Then one of the teachers spoke up above the noise as they ran into the Great Hall:  
"The Three Broomsticks has completely collapsed!"  
Her attempts at connection all collapsed as well, leaving Kayla an empty husk that gave a broken sob as she fell against Draco.

Lylia continued her urgent call as she traversed flame and shadow, the destructive agents singeing her dress mercilessly in a vain attempt to stop the determined teen.  
"TALEM!" she tried her best to amplify her voice above the hiss of the wood around her terribly perishing in the attack. A black shadow followed the unwary girl, its speed challenging the death that tried to overtake her. Her blurred vision failed to verify her location, but she believed herself to now be back in the main area of the building. Out in the open of the fire, she choked from an inhale of ill-intentioned fumes and stooped herself low to try avoiding it, dropping onto her hands and knees to crawl forward. So too crawled away the grains of sand keeping her from suffocating and immolating herself in her hourglass of fading life.  
It was then that the shadows took on their own forms: several black-cloaked forms stepped out of the fiery swirl that had caused the building to start creaking in admonishment. Lylia knew not if they were truly men or if they were demons of Hell's pits sent up to this place of such similar surroundings, but Lylia was certain of one chilling fact: they were real.  
Her mind wiped itself clean of all plan and reason, drawing a new demand that filled every pore of her overheated body: survive. The blonde forced herself to stand again, now running through the lethal swarm of ending dark and nefarious light to try finding an exit, a way out, or a haven. A beam crashed down next to her, showering her in sparks and terror. Her ankle caught on it as she sprinted past, knocking her to the ash-blanketed floor with a shred of fabric and a scrape of skin. Her dimming eyes made out the fastest shadow drifting closer… closer… and over her it swept.  
The man who reached her first bent down to collect the comatose girl in his arms, shifting her onto his shoulder and drawing his wand as the other black forms began to close in. The smoke swam in and concealed the pair at the Broomsticks' center, cloaking them for a few precious moments as the ceiling split one last time and gave them a way out before the entire building collapsed in on itself with an exhale that threatened to extinguish life's fragile candlelight.

Draco kept his ears open after he gave McGonagall his report of all the Slytherins being present. His full attention was not needed, however, because the news soon spread quickly in hushed whispers across the student body: Talem Kyker and Lylia Letum were the only missing students.  
The same teacher who reported the news of the Three Broomsticks had been posted at the most well-informed moving portraits for any more notices on the situation. He drew the pale Headmistress to the side, whispering to her in an undertone. She just nodded weakly in understanding, bidding him off to his post once more.  
"Professor McGonagall," Draco asked her after he drew himself away from the destroyed Kayla who had hidden her face against the cool wood of the Slytherin table. "Where is Professor Snape? I didn't see him arrive-"  
"I need you to just assure Miss Hartland that things will be alright, Mister Malfoy," was her curt reply, her eyes set on the distraught brunette. "And in related news to your question… I just received word that Miss Letum is safe."

Lylia woke up from a haze of pain that blotted out any chance of dreaming, sitting up fearfully as she found herself lying atop a black bed in a dimly-lit room. Bookcases filled with dusty volumes crowded the cramped bedroom, but a bowl of soup sat untouched on the nightstand beside her.  
"You'll be fine," Snape said quietly from the doorway, his attention focused on a random bookshelf rather than the disheveled girl. "But you're hurt."  
"W-what…?" Her ringing ears barely let through the sound of the teacher's voice, let alone his actual words.  
He didn't answer verbally, instead sitting at the foot of her bed and drawing up her torn, bloodied dress hem to expose her cut ankle. Though she flinched at his first contact with her skin, she made no motion to stop him as he began to bandage it.  
Her eyes saw one scene but registered another: it was Talem wrapping cloth around her hand, his soft hair falling far enough in front of his face to tickle her sensitive wrist. It was Talem helping a girl he didn't know, for a reason neither of them could name.  
Lylia watched Snape stand and step away from her, listening dumbly as he turned to leave the room.  
"They'll be wanting you back at the school now-"  
Snape stopped in his tracks as Lylia hugged him from behind, her face buried in his back and the single revelation of Talem's absence bringing her to muffled weeping.  
"Please… Please, don't go…"  
The Slytherin Head remained still before he turned and drew her taciturnly into a comforting, cold hold, his silence explaining fully how he completely understood: it wasn't him she saw.

Less than an hour later, the doors to the Great Hall opened one last time, letting in a single student. A deafening hush fell on the room as Lylia walked up the hallowed aisle, her steps themselves stopping as she looked around at all the empty, amazed faces of strangers.  
But then, a movement happened. Kayla stood from her misery and her tears, drawing Lylia's eyes to her. The pair remained focused on each other for countless, timeless moments, then became completely oblivious to the groups of students watching them as Kayla ran to embrace Lylia tightly.  
Unnoticed by all others in the congregation, Snape made his way to the Staff Table, Aidon sank in relief onto a bench, and Elden hurried from the Great Hall.

That night, Lylia sat sleeplessly in her dormitory bed, staring out of one of the tall windows flanking it.  
"Grey Lady…" she said hoarsely. "What is your name…?"  
"Helena."  
"… Helena…?"  
"Yes, Lylia?"  
"Do you know what it feels like to be dead inside…?"  
"We ghosts chose to exist in an afterlife of emotionless being," the spirit answered softly. "We know not pain, nor life, nor death."  
"Nor pleasure?"  
"Nor pleasure," Helena confirmed.  
"… Then you know what it feels like…"


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: There Will Be Magic… and Maybe Some Fanboys

(An ode to my Chocolate Frog: You were delicious. That's why I had to gnaw off your legs! So you couldn't run away! Mwahahaha! … Please don't hate me!)

The grief in Lylia's heart echoed through her head relentlessly, refusing to give her peace or let her sleep. Kayla didn't question what happened in the Three Broomsticks or what happened before Lylia's return. Well, no one questioned her. Maybe that's why she drew a bit into herself.  
Even though her mind refused to go on, Time passed as all things must.  
"It's the first day of classes!" smiled Kayla as she sat next to Lylia at breakfast.  
"Already…?" the blonde's blue eyes widened. "That was fast…"  
"Come on," Kayla tugged her friend up after breakfast had ended. "I'll escort you to your first class. Well, partway. I have Charms."  
"R-right…"  
Kayla arrived bright and early at Flitwick's room, waving goodbye to Lylia with a smile. Lylia just smiled and waved back, continuing down the hall.  
"Ms. Letum!" Hank cheeped as he bustled up next to her. "How've things been? I haven't seen you in a few days!"  
"I've been reading a lot," she answered distantly, glancing down at the finished leather tome she had indeed just read.  
"You know, if you really like magic that much," the jolly Hufflepuff gave a glance of his own at the incantations to which the book was opened, "Then you should go out for the Tournament! It's a great way to be exposed to all sorts of spells!" He stuffed a poster into her hand and continued on his way, hunting down more possible recruits for his team.

"Thanks…?" Lylia likewise stuffed the poster into her bag and went on her way, acquiring a new 'special gift from the Library floor' spellbook along the way.

About thirty minutes later, the pair of girls each awaited their first class at Hogwarts. While Kayla sat eagerly in her seat, her wand poised for education, Lylia stood awkwardly in a line of other Ravenclaws, a Silver Arrow broomstick in her hand and the thought of the poster in her bag still haunting her mind.

By the end of the class, much destruction was accomplished. All in all, a great session for the two girls. Kayla learned the spell Expelliarmus well enough to devastate her poor teacher in the destruction of several windows, and Lylia learned that she loved chasing after shiny objects like the Snitch but would never be satisfied with not being able to shatter three stands on the Quidditch field (as she_ did_ during that class period).

The two met up for a brief team chat before going to their next classes.

"How'd it go?"

"Few broken windows. One spell down. You?"

"Forbidden from joining the Quidditch team. But I caught a shiny. Good class."

Lylia headed next for Potions, while Kayla explored her way to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts room smelled distinctly of decay covered with cologne as the students all filed in, urged to their seats by a tall, male teacher with his back to them. A few stumbled in the dim lighting to get to their seats, but all eventually made it.

"It is refreshing, students," the teacher asked in a boisterous voice, "To see yet another fresh, famous teacher at work?"

Though general silence prevailed foremost, a collective sigh of hormonal schoolgirls flowed to the teacher.

"Oh, brother," sighed Kayla as she rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat.

The Gryffindor next to her sighed dreamily and fluttered her eyelashes at the man's back. "I _know_…!"

Kayla gave her a look of faint disgust.

The teach half-turned a fair-haired head, pearly-white smile almost glowing in the twilight room. "Anyone care to guess at a name?"

"Gilderoy Lockheart," Kayla spoke fearlessly up to the flamboyant man, now not even bothering to look up from her copy of _Quidditch through the Ages_. "Holder of numerous titles nobody cares about-"

"_Wrong_." A screech of chalk along the board sent the class cringing. The teacher turned his colourless face to them with another perfect smile, then focused on Kayla with a steady glare, his hand pointing at his name written on the chalkboard. "Professor Lestoat. Do take care in the future, young lady, to know an answer before stating it. There are punishments for such things in life." With that caustic remark, the new teacher sat at his desk and waved a hand at the page number also written on the board. "With this, you shall also be enlightened on today's _lesson_."

Kayla closed her book sharply and interlaced her fingers, staring over them at the teacher. A single thought was etched into her mind: _Who _is_ this guy?_

Students began drawing out textbooks from their desks and bags, groaning reluctantly as they opened to the page.

"Now, which of you can tell me what a Hinkypunk is?"

Kayla raised her hand. "Aren't they the lantern-bearers?"

"That is correct, Miss…?" The teacher's eyes now bore an approving but not benignant gleam.

"Hartland."

"_Very _good, Miss Hartland… And that will be the subject of this class's two-page report on Hinkypunks due Wednesday."

Another bummed groan from the class emerged, but at Lestoat's smile the majority of the agony turned to a sigh in delight.

Nothing nearly so interesting was occurring in Lylia's Potions class: there were mixtures of ingredients into a cauldron, and the absolutely only two people who possibly cared at all about it for the sake of Potions were Lylia and the teacher.

After she had her finished product approved, she took out the poster Hank had so graciously bestowed upon her and examined it more closely in the green-tinged light of the classroom. It read in bold, purposeful lettering:

END OF THE MONTH! ONCE A YEAR ONLY!

THE ESTEEMED **HOGWARTS DUELING TOURNAMENT**!

_Are you a fan of tremendous power? How about rooting for your favourite peer as they go head-to-head with friend and foe?_

_IF SO, then come on out for the HOGWARTS DUELING TOURNAMENT!_

_IT'S THE BIGGEST EVENT SINCE THE EMPTYING OF FILCH'S DESK DRAWERS LABELED _**TO BE INCINERATED**_. _

_Place your bets on the very participants of your school!_

_Root for whatever House you support!_

_See the spectacle that is the stadium!_

WILL THE LEGENDARY TITLE-HOLDER BE OVERTHROWN?

**FIND OUT THIS MONTH!**

Lylia silenced her gasp in realization with a bite of her fist, mentally overwhelmed by a phrase chanted so loudly in her head that the flashback threatened to knock her out:

"_Y-you're… the three-year champion of the Dueling Tournament here," the victimized Talem offered._

"Lesperance… He's… the title-holder…!" Whispering this to herself appeared to almost solidify its elusive fact, she did so numerous times, each repetition sinking the opportunity deeper into her mind.

"Kayla," Lylia said shakily and looked to her friend at lunch, sitting with her and Draco at the Slytherin table. Melinda seemed both curious and disdainful of the newest table arrival, but she said nothing as always.

"Yeah, Lyl?" Kayla scrawled complete falsification down as a paragraph of her newly-assigned paper. Caring was for the teacher's fangirls. Her scribbling ceased as a poster was laid over her parchment and quill.

"I need to enter this," Lylia stated with as much confidence as she could muster, pointing at the Tournament notice.  
Melinda giggled like a madwoman into her food, for once eating a full and hearty meal. She had been doing so since the previous weekend, but no one knew the reason for such a drastic increase in appetite.

"That Tournament's not some cakewalk, Cinderella. I may be in your year, but trust me: I've heard about that thing. It doesn't take three schools to make a tournament dangerous," the bitter, curly-haired girl admonished Lylia with a beady glance, deciding to make a reference both to the blonde's dirtied attire after Hogsmeade and the famous Triwizard Tournament in one go.

Something inside Lylia snapped at the remark. Her answer was tart. "Then it's a good thing I don't have a random Hufflepuff to lose in a maze and have killed in a graveyard."

"Ms. Lylia!" Hank beamed in his bumblebee-striped sweater as he walked by to his table.

"You were saying?" Melinda smirked after a bite of a sandwich.

"I'm afraid she's right, Letum," Draco intervened before Lylia could retort. It was easier than telling Melinda exactly what he wanted Fluffy to do to her after all she's done to the group. He instead leaned over and gave the flier a good look-over. "Fighting with magic like that often involves injuries. I can't imagine a first-year getting very far."

"Kayla, look," Lylia pointed at the last couple of lines, leaning closer to her friend to make the conversation a bit more private. "It's… It's the guy who's at the top. I have to enter. I have to learn more about… about what happened."

Kayla's eyes widened, her face sympathetically expressing her friend's pain. "Oh, Lylia… You think maybe he-?"

"Knows something? Yeah." Lylia took up the flyer again right as Melinda reached for it, pretending to not notice the attempt. "I think he knows a lot. And I'll do _anything _if it means… understanding why THAT happened."

Kayla didn't say anything, looking worriedly down at the table.

"Kayla…" Lylia put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently in pleading for permission. "I…"

"Go for it."

"What…?"

Kayla removed Lylia's hand from her shoulder to grip it supportively, head turning to give her best friend a happy smile. "Go for it... And make sure you get your answers."

"With all this cheery-feely talk, I may lose my appetite," Melinda muttered as she glared after the leaving Lylia.

"Yeah; imagine, you're actually _digesting_ _food_ at this rate," replied Kayla with a smile as she began her lunch, 'accidentally' getting some garlic bread bits on her paper for Lestoat.

Lunch ended, and the students went to their third and final class.

Kayla reported to Quidditch in her new robes and gloves, admiring the embroidery. Traced in white thread on the backs of the gloves were three words: "Kiss My Ass."

There was a new Beater in town.

At the same time, Lylia headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts, taking her time but trying to make sure there were still other Ravenclaws behind her that were going to the same place. It was by this habit of checking over her shoulder for them that she was completely oblivious to the teacher standing by the classroom's door… until she walked right into him.

"Sorry, I was just…" the girl trailed off, her azure eyes gazing into the black ones of Professor Lestoat.

"You must be in my next class," smiled Lestoat with a blinding smile. His smile faded as Lylia lowered her eyes to her books. "Miss…?"

"Yeah, I am, I guess… I'm Lylia Letum… May I go in…?"

"Please, do." The newest professor stepped out of the aperture, taking in a deep inhale as Lylia passed. The sound his breath made as he drew it in sent an ungodly shudder through her as she hurried to a seat furthest from the door. The teacher, however, didn't seem at all uneasy as he shifted his chair to sit down facing the part of the room in which she seated herself.

The class proceeded as regularly as anyone may please, but Lylia soon found herself dozing off in her seat. She sat up straight and occasionally pinched herself under the desk to keep alert, and yet despite all her efforts the effects of sleepless nights reading the borrowed spellbook caught up with her. Her head lolled to the call of slumber's soothing veil, and just before she drifted off-

"Letum! Detention!"

Possibly no other word in the English language could startle Lylia back to her senses as the second one uttered by her teacher did. Years of a flawless record in school went down the drain in the blink of an eye.

If she wasn't a teenager, maybe that would've mattered to her…

Anyway, Lylia inwardly griped and sank a bit lower in her seat, her stomach flipping unpleasantly at the thought of returning to that room after hours. Something set her on edge about Professor Lestoat, and she didn't need any more problems at the moment.

"You don't look so good," Kayla immediately pried as she found Lylia in the hallway after classes ended. "You eat something weird at lunch?"

"I have Detention," Lylia answered as she rubbed the back of her neck wearily.

"With whom?"

"Professor Leweasel…" the blonde refused to make eye contact.

"Le_stoat_?" suggested Kayla helpfully.

"That guy, yeah…"

"You and people's names… Look, you'll be careful with that one, alright?" Kayla nudged her to grab her attention before they separated again at the Great Hall.

"Oh, yeah. Don't need to tell me twice with_ that_ one." Lylia shivered despite the warmth of the nearby dining chamber and kept walking, heading past and to the dungeons.

"May I ask why you need a _third_ book?" Snape questioned of Lylia over a list of ingredients he was reviewing in the rear of his office.

"I finished the second one," the blonde answered bluntly, watching the Potions Master at work from beside the door, where she had been ordered to remain.

"And why so soon?" pressed the bat-like professor as he turned to fetch the next old, leather-bound book for her, an amused smirk crossing his lips at her previous answer while his back faced her.

"I need something to do in Detention with Professor Lestoat," stated Lylia.

Snape froze half-way across the room to her, his expression slowly setting in stone as a dark warning. "… Do_ not_ get Detention with that man again."

Lylia eliminated the distance between them, taking the book politely. "Uhm, alright, Professor..." Snape kept holding onto the book's other end.

"Do you understand me? Do _not_." His cold hand released the book and allowed her to step back with it.

"Yes, Professor… I understand." Lylia bowed her head in thanks and fear at the same time, still backing away until she reached the door.

"I thought you understood as well, but I was wrong with the Wolfsbane."

"I thought it was the most gorgeous misbehaviour I've ever performed, Professor." Bowing her head once more, Lylia left Snape's office.

"Perhaps… that's true," sighed the teacher after she had gone.

"Ahh, Lylia," said Lestoat as he let her into his classroom with one of his by-now-famous, stunning smiles. "I'm quite glad you showed up."

"I'd rather not face any greater punishment, Sir," Lylia strode past him with a straight back and self-carrying grace, as if the slightest defect in posture would betray an untold weakness. The professor took another deep, delighted inhale as she made her way to the same seat she had in her previous class session. Her invisible shield of impervious strength gained a crack as she shivered once more.

"How'd it go?" prompted Kayla the next morning as Lylia sat next to her.

"I shouldn't get Detention with him again," the blonde answered as she took an apple, biting into it resolutely. "It was alright. He just had me amuse myself for a couple hours…"

"That's good! C'mon, onto the new classes." Kayla hopped up and started out before Lylia could stop her. "I have Transfiguration today!"

"Charms for me," commented the Ravenclaw as she followed, eyes on the grey skies outside. "Was Professor Flitwick fun?"

"Oh, yeah. Just don't aim near anything breakable."

While Lylia was busy with learning Expelliarmus, Kayla made a brooch with a serpentine "S" engraved in emerald on its front. The following class was not much more exciting; while Kayla studied the importance of numbers in magic, Lylia ascended the Astronomy Tower and plopped down onto a rotund cushion.

"Our transcending class will begin with a unit of Tarot reading," Trelawney managed to say without hurting anyone with her enormous glasses. "I now request all of you to go to the closets in the back… and bring back a deck of cards."

Lylia sighed softly after she had retrieved the last deck of cards in the closet, looking over at her partner for the session. The older Gryffindor beside her cracked a wide grin at seeing the blonde's eyes on her.

"Hey!" she brushed a handful of unruly red hair over her shoulder, light green eyes glittering. "You're Lylia, right? I've seen you sitting with Hartland. She's my partner for Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Y-yeah… Uhm," Lylia tried to not sound rude as the two girls shuffled each other's decks. "You seem like you're a lot more used to this place than us…"

"I've been here three years, yeah." The redhead nodded and tossed more copper-coloured hairs away from her face. "I didn't take these classes in my other years, though. Figure I better get them in before exams and whatnot, ya know?"

"Oh, well, yes. That makes a lot more sense." Lylia smiled.

"Go ahead and gimme your deck. I'll read you first. By the way- I'm Karen."

"How'd you know my name, again?"

"Who here_ doesn't_ know it by now?" Karen flashed another grin. "Now- ready? I'll just go with a three-card reading this time, so we'll have enough time for more readings. I know, I know, it's normally… eight? No… That's question and answer. Let's make it more of a general reading, eh? Past, present, and future. Three. Not eight. Three…"

Lylia was no longer listening; her mind was wrapped again inside itself as she tried her best to decide on a question that needed divining. She could learn about her attraction for all this chaos… She could learn about the Tournament… She could learn about Talem.

"Okay, I'm ready."

Karen cut the deck thrice and laid one card down each time. She flipped over the cards one right after another, and then she examined them after they'd all been turned. She stared for a second in her surprise before laughing happily at Fate's joke. "I'm sorry, Lylia. I don't know how this happened! There's only one of each card in a deck normally. Someone must've gotten the decks' cards mixed up!"

Lylia just lowered her gaze from the cards to nod quietly: anything to not look at the reading again. From each of the three cards, the same twisted face stared grotesquely up at her in a skeletal grin. The title of each card read, "The Death."

"Thank you anyway… Karen."

At the end of the class, Lylia gathered her things and went hurriedly to lunch. Kayla didn't try to pressure her into revealing whatever happened in the previous class, but she was more than happy to go alongside Lylia to their last class of the day, Care of Magical Creatures.

"Do you think he's really as tall as they all say he is?"

"Hagrid's a man, Kayla. Not a legend."

"He's not a man, though! He's a half-giant!" Kayla bounced with each step.

"You weren't this excited when we went to go see Paul Bunyan."

"That's because you threw me in the trunk and told me we were just going to a wafflehouse." Kayla cast her friend a sideways glance, chuckling at the smile it brought to Lylia.

"In my defense, the giant statue was right _next_ to a wafflehouse. And I left you with a perfectly good CD to listen to in the trunk."

"The BeeGees are terrible after five hours of straight listening."

"Fine. I'll give you the B-52's next time. Or Heart."

"_What_ 'next time,' Lylia?"

The pair stopped outside, soaking in the filtered rays of sunlight through the boughs of the tree over them. Lylia's smile fell:

"There won't be a next time… will there."

"Sorry, Lyl… But we_ are_ in a whole new world."

"… A new, fantastic point of view?" Lylia gave a mischievous grin.

"… Oh my God." Kayla began to walk quickly down the path, away from her trailing friend. "I swear to God. If you start singing DISNEY on me-"

"No one to TELL us no, or WHERE to go! Now I'm in a whole new world with you!" Lylia's song swelled along the path and earned the pair several puzzled (or simply bewildered) glances.

"You'll be taking care of these delightful little fellas," Hagrid tugged crate after crate out of his home, passing one out to each student gathered. Kayla peered inside and blinked a few times.

"Professor Hagrid… What are they?"

Lylia made a face as she opened her crate, staring down a tawny-coloured ball of fur. "Puffskeins… Man, I didn't realize before that they were so closely related to the Tribble."

"They _are_ Puffskeins," answered Hagrid as he handed Kayla her speckled brown one from its crate. The ball of fur and tongue licked Kayla's cheek and purred happily. "This'll be our main project for the class, along with the daily lessons. Feed 'em scraps, and keep 'em away from motor vehicles."

Lylia's Puffskein refused to leave its crate, just snarling quietly up at her.

"Mine's broken," she announced cheerfully.

"Nonsense! They're very loveable creatures, once ya get to know 'em. Just give yers some time, and 'e'll warm up to ya."

"His protests are stating otherwise," Lylia observed the churring, whirring beast within her crate.

When she tried giving the creature scraps at dinnertime, it promptly defied physics and threw the food right back at her somehow.

"Man, I give up." The blonde shook her head.

"What're you going to name him?" Melinda asked with her same smirk as always.

"Medium Rare," responded Lylia with a glare at both beings.

Kayla entered the Great Hall, tardy for only the second time in her residence at Hogwarts, and dragged Malfoy by the cloak hood to their seats by Melinda and Lylia.

"What'd he do?" asked Lylia with wide eyes.

"HE was hanging out with his cronies in the Transfiguration Courtyard all of today." Kayla's answer was brief but portent. Draco gave a fearful sigh, sliding into his seat.

"They kidnapped me."

"You were willing."

"They kidnapped me with my consent."

"That goes against the definition of kidnapping."

"Love spat," threw in Melinda.

"Stay out of it!"

"Yeah!"

"Shut up, Draco. You're not off the hook yet."

Silence.

And so, the days began to slip away. Lylia would spend her nights sleeplessly reading spellbook after spellbook, taking pages upon pages of notes that spilled over her bedstand and trunk at the foot of her bed. Helena would sit atop the four-poster bed and watch, saying nothing but keeping the eternal, sad gaze. Kayla would spend the nights with Draco in the Common Room, just talking about their days or enjoying each other's company. They would kiss now and then, but other than that they had purely platonic relations in the eyes of the Slytherins. In contrast, the other Ravenclaws began to see Lylia as an external entity, a student who just happened to wear blue and silver: she never attended their parties or played sports with the boys or discussed beauty products with the other girls. She had always seemed to attract injury somehow anyway, right? Ravenclaws don't attract any sort of danger; they're too smart for that.

Kayla excused herself from her regular routine one night, instead going to the kitchens with a bag. She filled it with meat that the House Elves happily gave her, and she made her way up stairwell after stairwell, lost several times but eventually finding a certain room she had visited only once before. Opening its door, the trepid brunette padded over to a moonlit Occamy that shone its white down gently in the corner.

"Oh, Eli," she said as she began laying down the meat in front of it. "How can you possibly know what has happened…?"

The bird raised itself and swallowed each piece of food before stopping and examining Kayla, nuzzling her shoulder with its beak as if asking where its master was.

"I… I'm sorry, Eli…" Kayla stroked his head's gray fuzz with a catch in her breath. "He won't be coming back… But… I'll take care of you. Just you see… I even checked out a book from the Library on caring for guys like you… I'll let you out and let you fly, once a week… Every Monday, you'll get to go out for a few hours to eat and be free…" Her tears dotted the flawless plumes as she laid her head tenderly on top of Eli's.

"That'll be enough for you to be happy… Won't it…? We'll all be happy…"

The night before the tournament, Lylia went to Snape's office and knocked at the door. He opened it as irritably as usual, but this time he made no show of surprise to see her standing there.

"May I help you, Letum…?"

"Professor, I was wondering if you had a potion."

"… On occasion I _have_ been known to have them, yes."

"I need one that'll keep me awake all of tonight. So I can study."

Snape eyed his pupil's weary state steadily. He then vanished inside before returning with a vial of light blue liquid. "Drink this now, then..."

Lylia smiled at him in thanks before uncorking and upending the liquid. She blinked a few times as if to clear her vision, making a confused face before falling asleep upright and passing out.

Kayla stopped half-way down the hall to the Slytherin Common Room, seeing Snape ahead carrying Lylia in his arms. He stopped as well when he saw her.

"Professor Snape."

"Ms. Hartland."

"May I ask why you're carrying Lylia? And why she's sleeping?"

"Your friend Ms. Letum seems to have fainted in the hallway after running some sort of errand. I'm escorting her to the Ravenclaw Tower."

"… Right."

"May I ask what you're doing after hours, without an alibi, outside your dormitory?"

"What time is it, Professor Snape?"

"Half past midnight."

"… Goodnight, Professor Snape." Kayla rushed past him and onward to her dorm.

The entire student body became immensely busy on the day of the Dueling Tournament. Entrants were signing up at the Staff Table; teams and alliances were forming; fangirls were frolicking around with their hoards of comrades; and two very special twins were walking down the main rows of the Great Hall, each wearing a giant sandwich board marking tallies of bets.

Kayla's astonishment made itself obvious in her expression as she entered the Hall with Karen, both of them watching as Fred and George Weasley walked up to them with matching smiles.

"Care to make a bet on the Tournament outcome, ladies?"

"Of course they would, Fred. These two obviously have their wits about them."

"That is, if they can catch their breath, George."

"We'll walk you girlies through it, then. See these marks here?" George nodded at the chalked tallies on each sandwich board, one section above each pocket. "There's this line of pockets along the bottom here that hold the papers on which betting person in question writes their name and respective betting amounts. The tallies above each pocket here show the number of individuals betting on each person! And the name of the person on which the stakes are being put is at the top here, in this line." He pointed at the names of duelists above each tally section.

"Twenty galleons on Lylia Letum," Karen deposited a slip saying so in the small pocket labeled with the Ravenclaw's name.

"I'm sorry?" Fred gave a laugh and shared a glance with George. "Wouldn't you rather be putting your money on someone higher up the food chain?"

"I'm a first-year too, you know," Kayla raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, but you're not trying to go against _Elden Lesperance_," explained George in a pointedly rococo voice. "The guy's unstoppable with magic. A real prodigy. And didn't you know? He's a half-Veela!"

"Aside from that making him _extremely_ pretty, he's probably the only one of his kind in the world," Fred elucidated with another grin. "Magic's in his blood, mate."

"Five hundred galleons on Lylia Letum," Kayla answered and dropped her respective note into the right pouch, pretending to not worry about how it now contained all her Gringotts vault's money. "_Real_ magic comes from the soul."

"There's just no pleasing them," George gave a sigh after the shock of the bet.

"We best be on," Fred nudged his brother toward the exit. "They'll start moving these midgets out to the stands soon."

With one more confident grin at the girls, the identical pair went around them and left the Great Hall.

"Where are they heading?" asked Kayla with a glance at the ginger beside her.

"Out to the Stadium," beamed Karen. "Go get your boyfriend so we can head on out!"

Not commenting on the way Karen labeled Draco, Kayla departed to go fetch him, eager to go investigate this mysterious new location.

Lylia sat noiselessly by herself in one of the tents holding contestants, wishing in the back of her mind that she had brought her book with her for some last-minute studying. Around her, students chattered and discussed various aspects of the tournament. Some were talking about how easy their success would be achieved; others debated how they would spend the money they were going to win in their bets. The aurulent-haired Ravenclaw said nothing to any of them, just staring at her shoes and thinking of how she would ever manage to confront the man she needed to badly to talk to. Her sense told her how Lesperance would never fairly speak to her if not in front of the public that so adored him, but her fear told her that she should flee now and seek him out in private. Her cowardice would have told her to beg for his audience, but her pain over Talem's disappearance had thrown her cowardice forever into shadow.

Ever since the first headline read "HOGWARTS STUDENT LOST IN FIRE, PRESUMED DEAD," Lylia held no place for cowardice in her heart. If Talem had cast out his own in order to defend her from the man he feared more than anything… How could she live with herself for harbouring that same emotion in her solitary mind? Now, when she was about to go on her own to try and gain closure, gain relief, gain ANY sort of sign that it WAS all Lesperance's fault?

She blamed him. Lylia blamed him for all of it. He had nothing to do with the explosion, the attack, but it didn't matter. She paid no heed to the rumors circulating about a dark group of wizards that had organized the attack. She didn't file away the stories of how no one knew why the Three Broomsticks was targeted. She knew only her hatred for that singular smirk that ended an innocent, selfless boy's life just last month. Those bottomless indigo eyes knew no mercy, and she intended to show them none. That face she hated more than anything seemed glued behind her eyes as she stood and prepared to go out into the arena, having no idea what lay ahead but knowing full well what she needed to accomplish.

She would never forget that boy.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Look Out for Insane Redheads, Falling Aidons, and a Gorgeous Prettyboy

(Three Chapters in, like, four days… What am I thinking? I'm thinking I need longer chapters. Or not. No one's reading this stuff anyway, so why not? I don't know. Well, you should LEARN why not, then. Hey, who do you think you're talking to? Myself, of course! Oh, crap, there I go again…)

Karen separated from Kayla and Draco as they made their way out onto the Grounds, beginning the journey to the large amphitheatre sitting across the expanse of grass before them.

"Has that always been there?" asked Kayla dazedly, letting him guide her into the shadow of its huge bulk. The sun's gleam cast a thousand rays onto its metallic sides, setting it alight like a fantastic jewel. Draco just led her into the archways and up along the numerous rows of wooden seats, placing her beside him once he had sat down.

"It's set up like this the night before the Tournament," Aidon sighed as he exhaustedly sat down on Kayla's other side. "I volunteer every year for helping with it… but it never gets any easier to set up!"

"Haynes?" Kayla punched the Prefect's shoulder. "Why've you shown up for something so grisly and improper?"

"There is a huge amount of honour involved in this event!" Aidon self-dignified after a whimper at the punch to a sore limb. "Besides, that… friend of yours is in it. Have to make sure she doesn't hurt herself too badly."

"You have _no idea_ how much she'd make fun of you for saying that," Kayla answered as she sat back and relaxed a bit.

With the blare of a foghorn, all the contestants emerged from five doors that opened up around the stadium. They made their way each to a square of terrain along the expansive ground.

"You see, it's all enchanted," Aidon huffed while he caught his breath, waving a hand half-heartedly down at the stretch of rock and ground that seemed to be the playing field. "Each square matches up with another, then another, then another… Eventually, only two chunks of ground are left. Then one."

"So where do the pieces of the, well, _ground_ go? Do they fall away into a black hole or something?" Kayla made a face, trying to decipher the winded Ravenclaw's logic.

"You lose a match when you fall off your platform of ground or go unconscious," Aidon breathed. "Whichever comes first."

"I'm sorry? D-did you just say '_Fall off'_?"

With another foghorn's blare, the ground began to split itself up along the black lines marking each square's boundaries. As each contestant-holding slab separated from the rest around it, it began to raise itself into the air on the wings of enchantment.

Lylia gasped in shock as the floor beneath her feet jerked up and lifted her alarmingly quickly, dropping her to her knees as she gripped the dirt to try and remain still, safe. Her platform stopped a good ways up, turning and almost clicking together with her designated opponent's platform.

"No sitting down on the job, Lylia!" a familiar voice piped up.

"Hey, look up there," Aidon pointed through a myriad of levels the different platforms had created like a 3-D scatterplot graph across the giant dome, his green eyes focused steadily on Lylia's opponent as the two faced each other, yards and yards above the black pit on which the platforms were once a unified 'ground.' "It's-"

"Karen?" asked Lylia disbelievingly as she stood, shaking and refusing to look down.

"Moi!" trilled the Gryffindor cheerfully as a random curse from a nearby duel flew by over her head. She continued to smile across the few meters of platform dividing them, waving a finger. "I just knew I'd be the first to face you if I joined this Tournament!"

"H-how could you know something like that…?" Lylia looked down at her wand in her hand, unsure whether she should raise it or not.

"I just know these things," shrugged Karen with a knowing glint in her eyes. "Just like I know you're going to win this Tournament."

"I say, Fred."

"Yes, George?"

"Is it legal with these bets for a betting person to fight the person on whom they made a bet?"

"… _What_?"

"Isn't that Karen Goldberg up there, against Lylia Letum?"

"My word, that's correct! Well… I don't see why it's not allowed. Even if she lets the girl win, it doesn't secure her victory, so no foul!"

"What the devil is she doing?" Kayla was not asking so nicely. "Karen's a duelist?"

"Sweet! Cat fight!" This and many similar calls were heard from Malfoy's other side, where his five cronies filed in and sat down, bearing popcorn and soda. Kayla turned to look at them, then at Malfoy.

"… Draco."

"I know."

"… Draco."

"I'm sorry."

"Block me!" Karen spun and sent a bolt of orange light flying for Lylia. She giggled as the latter successfully absorbed the attack with a shield charm. "Good! Keep that wand steady!"

After a few seconds of no motion, Lylia glanced around.

"What happens now?"

"Well, one of us has to lose, of course." Karen gave a wink before turning her back to Lylia, running straight to the edge of her platform, and leaping over the edge of it.

"Karen?" Lylia stammered as she ran to the brink and looked down for her fallen friend.

The redheaded Gryffindor just smiled and waved up at Lylia, drifting lazily downward and then to one of the same five entryways the contestants had used to enter. "Stay sharp up there, kiddo!"

"So why'd she get involved at all?" asked Aidon as he watched Karen float down as if it was an everyday act.

"She was probably just calming Lylia down so she could fight seriously," Draco voiced his idea.

"How- how'd she just…?" Kayla was more lost than either of them. They both turned to look at her.

"You see, the amphitheatre's enchanted so that a duelist who falls off will just fly down and be taken through an exit," Aidon nodded at Karen as she strolled through the air and off the playing field through an archway.

"That way there are a lot fewer messes and casualties," added Draco.

"Give us a skirt!" cried out Draco's friends beside him. Out of all the people involved with the Tournament, they seemed to be the most excited about this "floating" mechanism.

All in unison once that batch of duels had ended, the platforms shifted to pair up the next duelists. Lylia shivered but remained standing upright as Kayla's abandoned platform was added to hers, bringing her next to face a short but lean Slytherin boy with a sour face and a bowlcut. He wasted no time in flinging a spell.

"Sectumsempra!" he shouted with a burst of magic.

"JESUS!" Lylia shouted in answer and fell to her stomach to avoid the beam.

"Is using such a serious spell even allowed?" Kayla was insulted and worried at the same time.

"It's frowned upon," Aidon gripped his robe nervously. "But yes, it's allowed… Get up and _fight_ him, Letum…!"

Snape sank a bit lower in his seat across the stadium, grimacing at the use of one of his very own spells being used for such a deed.

Lylia rose to her feet with a wary, hesitant stare at the opponent. Before he could shoot another attack, she stepped to the side and shouted, "Tarantella!"

In the flurry of footsteps accompanying the Slytherin's spastic burst into manic dance, several spectators turned their gaze to them. Kayla tried and failed not to laugh, giving a facepalm.

"Classic…!"

Lylia looked around at the dozens of faces watching her before shrugging, stepping forward, and giving her opponent a small nudge right off the platform. Hoots and applause rang out among the crowd.

"This is bad," mumbled Aidon with a grimace, having already figured out the platforms' pattern of movement. "She has a boggart next."

A collective 'oooh' came from the crowd, their attention focused instead on Elden as he fluidly disposed of an opponent. Lylia turned her head to catch his eyes on her, straightening her back calmly as the platforms moved yet again. Tossing a few blonde tresses out of his countenance, he folded his arms coolly in response to her nonverbal challenge; a faint grin tugged at his lips.

The space between the sets of platforms was gradually decreasing, leaving fewer and larger platform groups on which to fight. Lylia's platform linked with her next foe's, her mind reeling when she saw the shapeless swirl of dozens of objects at once. Others in the crowd seemed to wait almost as nervously as she did, curious and wary to see her biggest fear. As quickly as it had stirred, the excitement dissipated: a black-cloaked man stood in the boggart's place, his hood drawn over his head and hiding his face. Lylia drew her wand shakily as he started forward for her, her mind recognizing him twice: both as the mysterious examiner for her Defense Against the Dark Arts task and as one of the silent figures in the fire of the Three Broomsticks.

"R…Riddikulus!"

With a puff of air from the blonde's wandtip, the man's cloak flew away to reveal… Professor Lestoat. On his head was a frilly custard-coloured bonnet, and he wore a matching, lace-trimmed sundress.

The roar that went up at this turn from fear to comedy was almost deafening to Kayla as she herself almost fell over with laughter in her seat. Even a few of the other participants looked on with amusement after their own duels. Draco's friends, on the other hand, all screamed in terror at seeing the man in a dress and clung to each other like terrified toddlers.

Lylia gave a bow to the crowd this time, surprised at finding herself so charismatic, and smiled as the platforms –now doubled again in size- slid again. Her waiting opponent was another Slytherin, but certainly a female. The cronies decided to speak up.

"Lift up your skirt!"

"Give us a swing of your hips!"

"Cat fight!"

"Hey, is that a Ravenclaw? Why isn't she superpretty like the others?"

"BOO!"

Draco finally snapped. "IF YOU FIVE DON'T SHUT UP THIS VERY INSTANT, WE'RE GOING TO FIND OUT WHETHER OR NOT THE FLOATING ENCHANTMENT WORKS ON OBSERVERS AS WELL AS CONTESTANTS."  
They shut up.

The Slytherin facing Lylia pointed her wand and barked out quickly, "Langlock!"

Lylia blinked and looked around for a moment before shrugging. She wasn't bleeding anywhere, and she still had her wand. When she moved her lips to cast her spell, however, no sound escaped.

Snape sank a bit lower in his seat. That makes the second spell he invented being used against her.

"You don't learn your silent spells until your second year," the Slytherin girl gave a wide smile. "So sorry, firstie, but this is the end of the line."

Lylia moved a hand to her own throat, her eyes widened in fear. Her tongue wouldn't move to form the spell- it stuck to the top of her mouth out of a foreign force's will.

"Oh no," Aidon gave a moan and covered his eyes with Kayla's robe sleeve. "I can't watch."

Kayla jerked her arm away from Aidon, whirling on him. "How dare you! Aidon Haynes, how dare you give up on your friend when she needs your support the most!"

"Fine!" Aidon stood up in his seat, waving his arms wildly in the air as he yelled, "GO, LYLIA! GO!"

Malfoy gave him a look that quite obviously questioned his sanity, while Kayla just stood up and began to shout the same mantra. Draco's friends started up an impromptu version of The Wave while simultaneously trying to spell Lylia's name, all to much failure. Confident that his embarrassment would be shielded by theirs, Draco got up and shouted the same.

Lylia heard the cries, looking over at the cluster. The afternoon's dying sun still gave enough light with which to make them out; but upon seeing Aidon and hearing him use her first name for the first time, Lylia was seized by a series of twitches that the Ravenclaw Prefect had to strain his eyes to demystify.

"Is… Is she LAUGHING at me?"

"Most likely," smiled Kayla. "Keep yelling!"

The muted tournament participant wiped her eyes of the tears of mirth, turning to her gloating opponent again with uncanny cheer.

"What's so funny?" demanded the Slytherin.

Lylia just shrugged innocently again, now tapping her wandtip to her own throat and closing her eyes with a smile. As her eyes reopened, so did her mouth with a single word: "Langlibera."

The Slytherin girl's eyes narrowed. "How…?"

The stadium echoed similar sentiments of confusion and puzzlement. The volunteered commentators began to debate furiously before shouting out:

"It seems this first-year named Lylia Letum has… created a spell on the turn of a dime! How is this possible? For those of you just now tuning into this battle, Letum had been silenced with a jinx and has apparently just silently undone it!"

Lylia smiled softly, pointing her wand at her stunned foe. "Obscuro~."

As the girl's hands flew up to tug at the black blindfold suddenly covering her eyes, Lylia gave one more light push and the Slytherin soared just as her housemate did, over the edge of the platform and out of the tournament.

The applause that swarmed up this time didn't reach Lylia's ears; her senses were concentrated on one intent: asking Lesperance about Talem. No, not asking. Demanding. Less than a handful of platforms remained, but out of the four including herself Lylia was certain that Elden stood on one of them. She refused to look at him this time, but not out of pride or determination. Her eyes were glued to her newest opponent as the platforms linked.

A long, winding skyserpent loomed over her despite the wide expanse of platform that their fight could now cover. Its numerous coiled spanned easily half of their ground on which to duel, and its glistening teeth were easily the length of Lylia's now frail-seeming wand as the hulking beast loomed with a sickly grin.

"It's an Asian Lung," breathed Aidon just as he did when he first arrived at the event. "That's not good. Why is nothing good today?"

Lylia gasped for breath futilely as the creature swung around its tail and knocked her onto her back, her hand raising her wand just high enough to not let it be sandwiched to her body by the coils that began to wrap around her. Her mind raced for the right spell as the dragon lifted her up to its face, and she jabbed her wand down between two of the scales as best she could with a shout of, "Protego!"

Red sparks sputtered out from her wand and delved against the skin of the huge reptile, making it drop its sought prey. Lylia stood quickly, pointing her wand still at it.

"Incarcerous! Incarcerous! Incarcerous!" Each cry sent loops and loops of rope spinning out from her wand and wrapping around the behemoth of scales and death. As the huge lizard did all it could to twist free of its bindings, it rolled off the platform and brought Lylia to her final fight.

Kayla took a deep, calming breath as she sat in her seat once more, shaking slightly from her shot nerves. "This is it… This is it!"

"I honestly didn't think this'd happen," Draco shook his head. "It's truly a first for Hogwarts, I'd bet. And definitely a first for Elden- being challenged by a first-year, and a girl at that rate."

"Here we get to see all the hard work I put into it!" Aidon said about a seemingly-unrelated matter.

"Haynes, what're you talking about?" Kayla looked at him.

"Watch! The sun's down now!"

In truth, the sun had just set. As its last fingertips drifted down from the clouds and vanished past the twilight horizon, the entirety of the stadium began to glow. While a faint blue, neon light began to emanate from every outline of the seats, the dirt and ground of the platforms began to blow away like dust as they moved one last time, once again the size of its original terrain. As the ground began to fall away and vanish in a wind that sent Lylia's hair billowing in waves, the vanished earth left behind a pure, smooth marble on which the final pair of duelists now stood.

The marble ground itself seemed to catch the moonlight shining down from the clear sky above them, shining and illuminating the two from below their feet. Magical, transparent visual screens began to appear in circles around the seats, each showing a different angle of the two students now waiting for the last battle and giving its own light to illuminate the night in which the fight would take place.

"The final two contestants are the newcomer Lylia Letum and the title-holding champion, Elden Lesperance!" announced a commentator over the excited murmurs of the crowd. "Looks like Ravenclaw can rest easy at winning the contest for the fourth year in a row! But which of the genders shall walk away victorious? Which year? Which fighter?"

"Lesperance has entered again as a singular team," another student pundit continued. "It seems that Letum, however, has submitted herself as part of Hufflepuff's Dueling Club! Can that somehow be the secret to her success? Just what IS a Hufflepuff?"

"Hufflepuffs are widely believed to be a form of boar," added in another. "Maybe a species of one that mated with a hedgehog."

"That's a lie!" objected Aidon loudly. "They're HONEY BADGERS!"

"There seems to be a dissenter!" one of the commentators overheard him. "Hufflepuffs are apparently BADGERS."

"Regardless of what _they_ are, LETUM is a RAVENCLAW!" finished the first announcer. "More than that- she's about to try taking down Elden Lesperance!"

Meanwhile, both remaining participants were completely ignoring the commentators; their opposing optics stared steadily into each other, cool violent meeting sky blue.

"Lesperance," Lylia spoke up without tremor. "Why did you attack him?"

"This is no place for kids to play," answered the flawless man.

"Was Hogsmeade? Is Hogwarts?"

"What happened that day was not my fault, you meddlesome child." The elder student's eyes pierced.

"Is it because of how we first met?" Lylia was shouting now, frustration and pain swelling inside her chest and finding release in her lips. "Is _that_ why he had to die?"

"If you don't forfeit now, we must fight." His words were biting, acrid: "You're not going to get some happily-ever-after ending by facing me. The fact is that he's gone."

"I intend to do much worse than _fight_ you, Lesperance."

Elden closed his eyes with a faint, condescending smirk. "Then this can't be helped… Such a pity." He drew his hands to his shoulders, disrobing himself in one swift, graceful motion and dropping aside the drape of cloth.

A collective scream of delight rose from his countless fans among those watching, only most of which were female.

Lylia said nothing in answer, not dignifying it with a response as they strode to the center of the field. The platform sections began to fall aside from the outer edges, narrowing their dueling ground to a long strip a few meters wide that suspended them over the inevitable defeat awaiting one of them below.

After a brief, curt bow given simply out of tradition and not the slightest out of respect, the two duelists turned and strode to the ends of the platform. Elden made the initial attack, flicking his wand almost casually. "Ignimenti!"

A rush of flame issued from his wantip and flowed at first like lava onto the marble, not melting it but instead coursing along it until it rose and began to rush toward Lylia like a living, breathing abomination of life encased in flying fire.

"Deprimo!" Lylia called as quickly as she could react, pushing the fire back from her with a strong gale that gushed out across the stands of watchers. Elden continued pushing the fire toward her; she, back at him. Through those means a huge vortex of fire was born between them, rushing outward but at the same time held just barely, but barely enough, at bay. Taking her chance, Lylia cast another spell after one particularly strong push of the fire. "Aguamenti!"

Waves of water flushed down from the air around her and twirled their elegant way all around the flames, dancing lethally with the fire before both ceased to exist in a deafening hiss.

"Defodio!" Elden slammed his wand with a beam of light into the marble at his feet. A few yards ahead, huge fragments of it sprung up as if shoved from below, dug out from the careful precision and unison in which the stone had held its own form. "Engorgio!" With this newest spell each piece grew tremendously in size, soon its smallest shard being the size of a fist. Lesperance gave a full swing of his weight into a push of his wand, sending every single piece sailing directly at Lylia.

Her gasp was cut off even by her next defense, which was accompanied with a giant sweep of her arm as if to cast away her barrage of assault. "Reducto!" The light from her wand lit each stone like a prism and filled them all, leaving only diamond dust that showered the starlit girl and glittered as it fell away in a holy chorus of glimmering.

Elden continued his attack without remorse or hesitation. "Diffindo!"

This strike Lylia did her best to sidestep, but she staggered nonetheless at feeling a sharp sting slice open her right cheek. She drew her shaking hand away to see shining crimson staining her pale fingertips. On a past day, perhaps Lylia Letum would have simply sat down and cried. Perhaps she wouldn't have tried conquering this enemy. Perhaps she would have simply given up. Perhaps she would have turned to Talem.

"Duro!" she pointed her wand at the blood that had seeped onto her hand, flinging her vermilion hand upwards after the blood droplets had hardened to cast a second spell on them: "Celerrime Mitto!" With a whisper of cutting the air, each pellet of her blood sped like a bullet at Elden.

Raising his arm to block the blow, Elden hissed in pain as the blood he shed dug into his own flesh and quickly yelled out, "Expelliarmus!"

Lylia paled further as her abdicant wand flew from her grasp and rolled off the platform. She dived to the marble floor and reached desperately over the rim, down into the darkness, but the abyss had already swallowed her only weapon.

Elden allowed himself a triumphant grin and walked forward slowly, unhurriedly in his victory. Stopping above his biggest nuisance and greatest threat despite all his denial of such, Elden Lesperance pointed his wand as black as midnight down at her and said with a great deal of self-enjoyment, "No spells to say, no dragons to dispel, no weapon to wield…"

She looked down over the edge where her hand was still outstretched in the dark, her sapphire eyes wide, then gazed one last time up at the man stretching out her beaten fate. Her surprise shifted and ebbed, turning instead to the same expression of completely contempt.

"Still such a defiant girl," Elden's grin twisted darkly.

"Actually… You're right. I don't have a dragon. But… as for a spell and a weapon… I _did_ just use one to get the other. I know one nonverbal spell…" Keeping her eyes on the man, Lylia slowly rose, her once-hidden hand now revealed to be holding a familiar strip of white wood. "Accio… Wand."

Elden's mask of radiant confidence fractured as he took a step back. "No…"

"STUPEFY!"

"SILENCIO!"

Both spells were yelled respectively by Lylia and Elden, in complete unison. The strangling silence of all who saw the event reigned over everyone present, pounding their hearts into their ears and their souls into their throats as they waited to see which spell prevailed.

Elden Lesperance fell forward, unconscious.

Lylia Letum won the Dueling Tournament.

The crowd seemed to explode with its joy and shock, rows of the students standing and bursting into applause and whistles and cries. Snape himself clapped for some time before realizing what he was doing and quickly sitting down again in a sullen fashion. The applauding McGonagall made a mental note to never let him live it down. Aidon was so overtaken with emotion that he fainted quite dramatically, collapsing. Kayla almost seemed to be crying from her laughter and relief, and together with Draco's help she hoisted Aidon out of his seat and off to the side before giving her boyfriend a sound kiss on the lips. Malfoy's friends promptly began screaming like little girls as the collapsed Aidon fell on top of them. Lylia trembled in her knees from weariness as the platform returned to ground level and turned to let her walk through one of the five archways, her gaze going to her fallen adversary.

"Did I really win?" she whispered aloud and numbly walked out onto the Grounds of Hogwarts. "I've learned nothing… Did I really expect to learn anything?"

"Lylia!" Kayla glomped her in a delighted hug. "You did it! You really did it!"

"What happens next?" Lylia laughed exhaustedly.

"Next we party!" Draco exuberantly pointed at the lit castle ahead of them. "Midnight celebrations are the best kind!"

Amid the festivities, Kayla and Karen happened across a certain pair of twins giving out and collecting betting amounts. They sighed as the girls approached, both of them reluctantly handing over the owed galleons.

"I think we made an unwise turn at this junction of our career, Fred."

"I couldn't have said it prettier myself, George."

Lylia retired early for the evening despite the urgings from those around her to stay and relax. She sat yet again in her four-poster bed and looked out the window, her eyes raking unappreciatively over the serene beauty of the moonbeam-filled Black Lake.

"Lylia…" Helena said quietly by her side.

"I know." She just kept staring out the window, her heart aching just as much as it had before the tournament; but now it was encased in a thicker, more durable shell. It just made her empty heartbeats sound even louder.

Elden sat in a bed of the Hospital Wing motionlessly. His eyes were open, but he just stared outside past the gossamer curtains that waved in the midnight breeze. His bandaged arm's pulses of pain were distant and abstract to him. Madam Pompfrey had deemed him capable of leaving, but she took no action to have him removed. Instead, she left him be and went off to her quarters.

And so, in the silence that encased him, the dethroned ruler listened to his empty heartbeats.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Who knows what I'm writing at This Point!

(All I know is that this is where all the twisted pairings get implied!)

Lylia Letum returned to her classes as any good student would, trying her best to not let her victory in the Dueling Tournament affect her. Nonetheless, the student body as a whole seemed quite impressed. While Hank was overjoyed at the sudden rush of students joining his once-small Hufflepuff Dueling Club, Lylia herself gained somewhat of a cult following along the school underdogs and straight, recently-made-single males (all of whom loathed Elden for implied reasons). While a bit of school fame is nothing bad for a seventeen-year-old girl, attracting the attention of Rita Skeeter _is _bad for her. Thus, Lylia entered stealth mode as the frightening reporter knocked on Hogwarts' front doors as readily as she would a friend's door. There was much Mission Impossible music.

Hiding in Hogwarts may never be seen as a challenge, Lylia decided, as long as one knows where to curl up and pretend to not exist. She found such a location while running spastically down the hall and desperately seeking refuge. After she found countless doors down the hallway locked, one ornately-carved one swung open and let her in. Slamming the door shut behind her, she turned in the dark room to see a single, pale light falling on a tall and thin object covered with an aged tarp.

"I just don't know where she could have ran off to this time," sighed Kayla as she finished her lunch, accompanying Karen out into one of the long, torchlit corridors. "I had Aidon check the Ravenclaw Common Room, and I even looked around the Grounds…"

"Maybe she got hurt?" Karen proposed. "We should check the Hospital Wing!"

This new idea did nothing to soothe Kayla's worries, but the pair of friends from the most unlikely of compatible Houses ascended all the way to the infirmary in hopes of finding the elusive blonde.

Lylia was nowhere in sight, and most of the Hospital Wing was completely deserted. Karen did, however, notice one bed occupied as she was about to follow the brunette Slytherin out. Asking her to wait a second outside, Karen approached the infirmary's single inhabitant.

"Elden?" She bended forwards a bit to scrutinize the man from a few feet back. He was definitely the same student but, at the same time, a completely different person. He wouldn't look away from the window; his hands sat limply at his sides, his golden hair showing black roots from his lack of care for its colour. Karen extended her hand to take one of his. "Are you okay?"

"Don't touch me." The singular, almost feral growl was simultaneous with his hand's jerk away from hers. His eyes remained miles away, not even glimpsing the girl by his seat. "Get out."

Whether it was out of respect for the man's pride or out of hurt over his sharp rejection, Karen said nothing of the ordeal when she returned to her friends' company throughout the day. Lylia was equally withholding of information, not saying a word at dinnertime when she reappeared. Though Melinda ate enough to fill all of their stomachs, she still found time to speak and offer Draco her untouched drink. His own single statement that evening was an acceptance of the drink. After the others had gone to their dorms, Kayla went instead to talk to Eli.

"Let's see if I can open your lock here…" She went to the huge window's padlock, frowning. "It's a five-letter password that opens it… Eli, do you know it?"

The bird stared at her for a few minutes, and then he began to scratch in the dust at his feet an image that vaguely resembled Talem's mop of hair.

"Ahh," smiled Kayla fondly before she entered "Talem." The seal clicked open, and she slid the lock out from its hold on the window. "Smart bird!"

Eli crooned happily as Kayla pushed open the dirty window and stepped back to let him by. After he stretched his wings once, twice, he propelled himself forward and launched straight out the window, into the open skies. As if watching an award-winning skater performing their best routine, Kayla was entranced by the aerial dance the Occamy performed.

"One of these times, maybe after break, I'm going to get my broom and fly with you," she smiled into the sunset's air.

Nyx was a rather curious snake. She learned it, most likely, from her owner.

That night, well past the witching hour, she silently slid up into the Hospital Wing and gathered herself next to Elden. The Ravenclaw appeared to not notice the snake.

Very put-out upon being ignored, Nyx climbed his hand and poised herself on his leg.

Cold, dead indigo eyes more frozen than ice lowered to the snake. He said but one sentence, and yet he said it with all the decayed malice in the world: "Get off of me."

Nyx left the Hospital Wing as quickly as she could.

Slithering up onto Malfoy's bed after breakfast the next morning, the black king cobra curled up happily on Draco's chest and hissed for him to wake up. He groaned quietly and ignored her. Still curious as to why the boy remained in bed, Nyx hissed louder, shifting her coils obstinately. Malfoy jerked up with a toss off of the bedsheets, leaving the disgruntled Nyx in a pile under them and running straight out of the room.

"Dra?" asked Kayla gently after following her wandering snake to the nearest restroom. Draco adhered to the summons and made his precipitous path from the bathroom, his face a stark white.

"I'm not feeling all that great," he stated the obvious.

And so, Kayla spent her morning not in class but in the Hospital Wing. Nyx had completely refused to go in, resorting to even giving her dear master a warning hiss of resistance so that Kayla would give up on taking her inside. The serpent went right to Kayla's abandoned bed in her dormitory and curled up under it. Kayla had no means of knowing what frightened or angered her pet; there was no one else in the sick bay other than her, Draco, and Pompfrey.

"We can't be sure what's wrong with him," Madam Pompfrey said to Kayla after her initial examination of Draco. "It looks most likely as if it's a small dose of hebona poison."

"Poison?" exclaimed Kayla before she could hold her tongue. "Madam, who would think to do such a thing at Hogwarts?"

"I'm sorry, love," Madam Pompfrey tittered as she went to her office. "I'm a nurse, not a detective…"

Lylia was in almost an equal state of solitude as Kayla was, sitting by herself in Defense Against the Dark Arts to read her newest borrowed spellbook, under her desk's cover from the teacher. She made good use of the bandage on her cut cheek, using it as an excuse to lean her head against her hand when she began to get drowsy from the continuous reading. Although she had found a few nights of sleep, insomnia plagued her as long as she had such engrossing reading material.

In the middle of writing lecture notes on the board, Professor Lestoat announced without turning his head, "Letum! Detention!"

Jerking herself to attention, Lylia groggily tried recalling where she was. Nothing added up once she pieced reality back together: she wasn't doing anything more rebellious than usual... Maybe it was the sundress incident coming back to bite her.

"Sir…?"

"Today. No questions."

Resigning herself to death at the hands of a Potions Master, Lylia gave up on the entire class and went to sleep. Unless Lestoat somehow hid a hauberk under his long cloak, there was no way he could bestow a more painful demise upon her than the one he had already given.

"I'm just doomed," Lylia stated aloud to herself, trudging along the corridor outside the infirmary.

"Why's that?" called Kayla from inside.

"Detention again… Think I should tell Snape? He told me not to get it again…" Lylia trailed off as she entered. "… What's up with Malfoy?"

"He's sick," was all Kayla said.

"Oh… I hope he's well again soon."

"You better go tell Snape, or there's no way _you'll_ be getting better."

"I should tell him about Malfoy being sick?"

"About your _Detention_, Lyl... I'll go on to my classes too…"

Grimacing at the idea, Lylia complied and went straight to her next class, Potions.

"Professor."

"Yes, Letum?" Snape risked a glance over at her between inspections of her concoction of the day.

"I'm afraid I got Detention with Lestoat again."

Snape sharply dropped his quill into the cauldron. It made the mixture fizz. The quill was suddenly no more. "… You need to go early."

"Early, Professor?"

"At lunch, Letum. Do it." Without another glance in her direction, the Slytherin Head went about checking the rest of the class's potions.

Lylia quickly left the classroom and worked her way against the Hall-bound crowd of students, soon knocking at the Defense Against the Dark Arts room's door.

"Letum? Come on in," invited a sickly sweet voice that made her shiver.

"I've come for lunch instead of after dinner," she explained a bit shakily, opening the door and stepping in as requested.

"Feel free to take a seat anywhere," replied the calm man sitting in his dark chair, his eyes flicking over to her usual chair at the back of the room.

After lunch had ended, Lylia stood up.

"Be seated, if you would," reprimanded her teacher.

"Professor Lestoat, I need to go to class."

"I'm sure there can be an exception in this case," Lestoat smiled widely after a chilling inhale.

"She should be here by now," Kayla commented as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "She's never late for a class. For dinner? All the time. But not for a class."

"I have a free period right now," the oscitant Karen answered as she lifted her head from the lush fall grass. "I bet Hagrid would let you go with me to see about her. Ask him!"

"Screw it, let's go." Her diligence to Care of Magical Creatures forgotten, Kayla tossed her Puffskein into its crate again and took off across the Grounds with the Gryffindor. "I bet I know where we can find her.

"Lestoat!" she banged uncaringly on the door.

"Ah, Miss Hartland," the professor smiled as brilliantly and flakily as ever. "What can I do to help you this fine afternoon?" His eyes glittered with ulterior motives as they found Karen, his smile turning charming. "And how do I deserve the fair, young Karen's visit?"

"We're here for Lylia," demanded Kayla before Karen could swoon. "Hagrid needs her for class."

The smile completely departed from Lestoat's face and sailed to another continent. He stared almost blankly at the Slytherin before saying over his shoulder, "Letum. Leave. Now."

With a whoosh of wind and inward praise of the heavens, Lylia slid past him without any trouble and joined her friends outside the classroom.

Kayla refused to say a goodbye or give her thanks, instead taking Lylia's cold hand and drawing her away to class. Lylia definitely had no complaints about it. Karen, however, turned her head to blow a kiss to her favourite teacher. Lestoat just smirked and gave a wave, miming the catch of the kiss.

"That's pretty disgusting," commented Lylia under her breath.

"No disdaining your saviour," answered Karen with a patting-down of her unruly red curls.

Kayla knew full well that she could go back to classes, but instead she went again to the Hospital Wing and sat at Draco's bedside. Her stomach soon grew fitful in its deprivation of any food that day.

"Knock knock," Melinda said with a faint smile in the doorway.

Turning and half-expecting an asinine remark or witty question, Kayla was surprised to see Melinda just standing at the door, a tray full of food in her hands.

"I heard about him and thought you might be hungry."

"You're… You're a life-saver, Melinda," Kayla struggled for the right words. "I never expected you'd do something like this for me!"

"I may seem… somewhat abrasive," the beady-eyed girl placed the tray down at Malfoy's bedside. "But I know what it feels like to be alone." She stepped back and folded her arms, finishing softly with, "It's best to handle it on a full stomach."

"Professor Snape?" Lylia called quietly into the Potions teacher's office that night and went to the back of it, where the familiar black figure hunched his back over a small flame.

"Letum." He beckoned her over with a small wave.

"I wanted to thank you for-"

"Your hand, please." Without waiting, Snape took her nearest hand and placed a pair of tongs in it, at the end of which a Muggle penny was gripped, dripping a strange liquid in which the teacher had previously soaked it. "Put it over the flame."

Quieting her breath in the silence, Lylia nodded obediently and guided the coin over the orange-blue glow of the fire. Nothing appeared to happen.

"… Professor?"

"Retract your hand," he took her wrist and led the penny off of the fire.

"What was supposed to happen?" Lylia asked him confusedly.

"Magic," Snape answered cryptically, dropping the cooling penny into her hand and nudging her right out of his office.

The Ravenclaw winced as the door slammed shut behind her, walking back to her Common Room and now apparently one cent richer. Huzzah.

"Magic, hm…"

"I hate magic," grumbled Kayla as she finished yet another paper for Professor Lestoat, scribbling down random sentences to fill in the blanks in her writing.

"Is it Lestoat's?" asked Melinda from across the Common Room where she read, on a couch. She gave a small laugh. "Look out for him. He's a creeper."

"No kidding," Kayla managed a tired grin, setting down her quill and rubbing her eyes. "You too?"

"Any sane girl can see that about him." Melinda turned a page in her book.

"What's that you're reading?" asked Kayla.

"The Evolution of Quidditch's Female Teams."

Kayla paused. This girl spoke her language. "You don't say?"

"I know, I know, it's a sparse study. But it's really quite fascinating."

Lylia opened her fist to look down at the penny, halting in her steps.

The penny's copper gleam had turned to a golden shine.

Smiling to herself, she pocketed the penny and climbed to her dormitory.

"Break break break!"

Kayla distantly heard the noise and groaned. "What?"

"Our Equinox break starts tomorrow! C'mon, sleepyhead, get up!"

Something was waaay too familiar about that voice. Kayla opened an eye:

"… Karen."

"Yeah, Kayla?"

"… How did you get into the Slytherin dormitories?"

Karen promptly seized Kayla by the ankles and yanked her clean off the bed. "I'm a ninja!"

A muffled groan was all that emerged from the tangle-haired brunette who had just been made bedless. "Ninjas… should be silent."

"I'm a SPECIAL ninja!" Karen rolled onto the vacated bed. "Get up and get ready! I gotta show you something before tonight, when we all gotta head home for the break!"

"What time is it…?"

"About seven A.M."

"Ugh… Alright, but fast, please. I gotta get back to Draco and see how he's doing."

Kayla handed herself over to the redhead after getting herself presentable, promptly being pulled through a myriad of stairs and halls until the two girls had reached a unique, ornate door.

"What's in here…?" asked Kayla hesitantly.

"You'll see," Karen answered as Kayla was afraid she would, pulling her friend inside the Room of Requirement.

The black room had but one source of light, and it came from overhead in a rather ominous fashion. Kayla stared down a bizarre object in the room's center- or, rather, she stared down the dirty tarp covering it.

"Karen… What is it?"

Karen just strode forward and jerked off the tarp with a swing of her arms, revealing an ancient, pentagonal standing mirror. Runes wound their way along its top, upward-pointing arch.

"It's the Mirror of Erised," she said in a voice betraying the awe she still had for it. "I was shown it just yesterday."

Kayla's hand wandered to her wand, gripping its handle anxiously. "What_ about_ it, Karen…? Why are you showing it to me?"

"It's amazing!" sighed Karen happily, her green eyes gazing into the untold depths of the glass as she stood herself in front of it. "When I look in here, I… You see, I was unsure of whether or not I should do something. So I told my friend, and she showed me this thing. Now, I… I definitely know what I want."

"And… What would that be?" Kayla kept her hand on her wand, watching her friend guardedly.

The green eyes began to shimmer with tears. "I… I see myself as being so beautiful."

"Karen!" the concerned Slytherin walked to her and hugged her tightly. "What's wrong…? You're _already_ beautiful!"

"Not like I will be… Y-you'll see… You'll see…" After a faint sob, Karen calmed herself down and nodded at the Mirror of Erised. "Go on, Kayla! Look into it."

Before she could rethink her options, Kayla released the redhead and unwittingly faced her greatest desire. Her heart gave a jolt, breath ragged as she saw herself standing beside a loving husband, two children about their legs and the youngest, third child in her arms.

"… A family," she whispered as if in pain.

"See…? It's beautiful, I bet..." Karen forced a small laugh, beginning to cry again.

Draco was sitting up in his bed as Kayla, still clearing her head, brought him a staple of breakfast.

"Hey," he smiled wryly.

Dropping the food without another thought, Kayla ran and leaped onto the bed, hugging him tightly.

"W-whoa," Draco laughed good-naturedly at the welcome. "It's Saturday, right? And tomorrow's the start of the Autumnal Equinox's vacation?"

His hazel-eyed companion sat back with a bright, infectious smile. "Yeah…"

"I'll need to go home anyway, since I can move and they're sending everyone home," Draco did his best to make it sound casual. "So… How would you like to go home with me and meet my parents?"

Kayla's eyes widened almost too much to be physically safe. "Your… parents?"

"They've been bothering me to bring you over in their letters and such," admitted Draco with an embarrassed grin. "This makes a pretty good excuse for me to-"

"I'd love to!" Kayla threw her arms around him again.

"G-good!" stammered Draco with just about as much alarm as he had the last time she hugged him. "Let's go pack… Could you help me?"

And so, with many awkward stumblings to the right and left, Kayla helped Draco back to the Slytherin dorms.

Madam Pompfrey just shook her head as she watched them go. "One moment I have Mr. Lesperance disappearing from his post, and now Draco's gone and maybe taken out a few other students with him on his way out. When will I ever have just a _normal_ patient…?"

Lylia planted herself by the doors to the Great Hall, watching the exit to Hogwarts as rows and rows of students went out to the carriages and longboats to go home.

"Letum."

Giving a start, Lylia found Severus Snape suddenly standing beside her. "Y-yes, Professor?"

"Why haven't you collected your bags to go home?"

"I… don't quite have a way of going home, Professor."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "The Hogwarts Express and Floo Powder network are perfectly functional, I assure you."

"It's not that, Professor…" Lylia lowered her eyes to her shoes. "I don't have somewhere to be. See, I used to stay with Kayla and her guardian… But since Kayla came here, Ms. Cambridge – her guardian- has been staying with a relative, so…"

"And what is Ms. Hartland doing in this situation?" Snape laced his fingers together in front of himself.

"She's going to a friend's home."

"You are not allowed to remain at Hogwarts during this break."

"… I know, Professor. I apologize."

Snape brushed off his cloak idly, suggesting, "If you wished to… You could stay with me in northern England."

Lylia peered up at him as if to tell if the teacher was joking or not. Upon remembering which teacher she was talking to, the need to see if he was joking or not faded. "You mean it…?"

"I am indeed willing to house you for a short amount of time. If you wish to decline the request-"

"Thank you, Professor." Lylia just smiled quietly and averted her gaze again.

A few days later, Lylia Letum stretched with a yawn and walked out of the bedroom at Spinner's End, still very much in her pajamas as she went to get some cereal for breakfast. Snape was in the small, old den, dialing on the house's phone. Curiosity overwhelming her, Lylia ditched the dining and went to eavesdrop.

Lucius Malfoy had just sat down the four members of the family for breakfast when the wall's phone began to shout.

"It's Snape! Severus Snape calling! Answer the blighter before he decides to leave a bloody message! Snape on the phone!"

"Ignore him," Lucius smiled strainedly at his son's guest. "It's just Tom, The Operator of Metacognition."

"That means it's a phone that thinks it's a person," mumbled Draco in explanation to the still-bewildered Kayla. "A nuance of the Wizarding World, if you will."

"Too true that is," Lucius nodded at his son. "Sorry, Kayla. I must take care to remember that you're not exposed to this sort of thing. What is it _like_, being a Mudblo-?"

"LUCIUS!" came Narcissa's sharp snap from across the table. Everyone else jumped at least a foot in the air. "Good HEAVENS! Our boy has finally taken an interest in a girl, and you go and use a racial slur against her!"

Lucius's frightened face sought forgiveness. "You're right. Kayla, I apologize."

"It's alright…" Kayla shakily ate her egg.

Within a few minutes, the phone "rang" again. "OI! I said GET the PHONE!" Tom screamed. "This stupid git won't shut up long enough for me to-"

The blaring phone was silenced as the head of the Malfoy residence lifted it from its cranny and smirked. "Severus?"

Kayla watched with wide eyes.

"Snape and Dad are real good friends from back in the day," Malfoy explained once more. "Keeping in touch is hard at Hogwarts, but it's easy when Snape actually goes home, like he must be now."

Lucius listened to Snape's reply then shook his head with a faint grin. "I have no objection to discussing this matter, but would you mind if I put you on speakerphone so the others can say hello? We're just eating breakfast." As the teacher answered unintelligibly on the other end, Lucius set down the phone and clicked a button.

"- would really rather not…" Snape stopped talking when he realized what Malfoy had done. "… Hello."

"Had a nice break so far, Professor?" asked Draco as he grinned into his own hard-boiled egg.

"… Yes, Draco, it has actually been… quite nice."

"Have you called back any of those nice women I introduced you to the last time we all ate at Hogsmeade together?" Narcissa asked pointedly.

"No… I have not called any of those women back." Snape twitched.

"Why haven't you, Severus? They're perfectly nice girls!"

"Narcissa, I'd really prefer not to talk about this right now," the teacher's voice sounded hushed. In contrast, a much louder, female voice came on the line from somewhere in the background.

"_What_ women, Professor?"

"Lylia?" gasped Kayla.

Snape's drain of colour could almost be heard through the phone. "Lyli- Letum, I'm on the phone right now-"

"Hey! Those are the Malfoys, right? Is Kayla over there?" Lylia bounced.

Lucius's grin turned more than a little twisted. "Ooh… she sounds _young_, Severus..."

"Please, Lucius! This is no time for such joking!" Snape gripped the phone's cord tightly as his cheeks heated.

"And she's calling you _Professor_, too. Say, is she a_ student_ of yours…?"

"Mr. Malfoy, that's my friend Lylia Letum! She's a first-year like I am!" Kayla piped up.

"So_ this_ is why you didn't call them, Severus, you sly dog." Lucius was doing all he could not to laugh. "Robbing the cradle, aren't we?"

At this point, Narcissa fainted.

"Hi, Mr. Malfoy!" Lylia chattered happily as she took the phone from Snape. "How're you guys doing?"

"Hi, Lylia!" answered Kayla with a grin that almost mirrored Lucius's. "How're you enjoying your little stay at Snape's?"

"Oh, it's really great! I get to sleep in his bed and everything. It's always warm!"

There was a distinct thumping on the other end of the line that sounded an awful lot like a Potions Master hitting his head against a wall.

"Is that all that's warm?" asked Lucius viciously.

"Oh, no! _Everything's_ warm over here!"

"LETUM." Snape snatched the phone back from the naïve Ravenclaw who thought they were chatting about the weather and hung it up with a swift click.

A few seconds later, the three still-conscious breakfast attendants burst into hysterical laughter.

"I like her," Lucius deemed of Kayla once they could all breathe again. "You treat her well, Draco."

"Yes, Father," Draco rolled his eyes as he smiled.

As the half-month of break rolled to its midway point, Snape made the sudden decision to take Lylia with him back to the castle one evening. She arrived with her bags again by Floo Powder and confined herself mostly to three rooms- the Great Hall, the Ravenclaw Common Room, and the Room of Requirement. In the last of these rooms, she only did one action- staring into the Mirror of Erised. On one night in the Great Hall, however, Flitwick made his arrival back at the school and ate dinner with her. They made pleasant small talk as best as possible.

"I thought your work in the tournament was simply phenomenal," the Ravenclaw Head smiled at her from a short distance above his food.

"Thank you, Sir," Lylia smiled politely back and picked at her own meal.

"I really don't think you should let any of it get to you."

"I beg your pardon?" Lylia looked up again. She didn't have to look very far up from her plate, but still.

"The Daily Prophet, I mean. That Rita Skeeter."

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Professor Flitwick… I don't read the Prophet."

Flitwick's conversational smile drifted off. "Oh. I see… Well, she's said some things."

"What has she said in particular, Sir…?" Lylia put down her eating utensils, stomach flipping in refusal to eat now.

The Charms teacher didn't answer directly this time, just taking out a copy of the newspaper itself and sliding it across to her. There, on the front page, was a picture of Lylia standing quite happily in her pajamas, drinking hot chocolate quite contently right outside Snape's house. The first few lines of the article read:

THE BEWILDERING BEGINNER

Lylia Letum, pictured above outside at Spinner's End, has always been a remarkable student to behold. A girl of unknown parenthood and ordinary childhood has risen to the highest-ranking magic users of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After the 'tragic accident' of her dearest lover Talem Kyker in the disaster of the Three Broomsticks, what lies in store next for this tragic hero torn by her attraction for danger? Did she start the attack herself, claiming that this new cult of dark wizards calling itself the "Addonexi" did it all? Defeated Elden Lesperance has been nowhere in sight to comment on this issue, as of yet.

Lylia flushed in mortification steadily more as the section progressed, eventually setting aside the paper with a stung exhalation.

"It's utter rubbish," Flitwick assured her as he nudged the Prophet off and onto the floor, as if to prove his point. "Don't listen to a word of it."

Lylia ducked down quickly to retrieve it, unfolding it once more as something occurred to her. "What's this 'Addonexi' bit here?"

"Oh," the Charms teacher seemed relieved to talk about something other than Lylia's reputation. "That's what the rumor is about who attacked Hogsmeade that day. No one knows their intentions, or anything else for that matter… Excuse me. I should go unpack." The pint-sized professor stood and departed quickly with his bags.

The Ravenclaw just nodded numbly as he left, her eyes glued to the single epithet 'dearest lover.' Slandering her name was just fine with her… But now she was slandering the name of the dead. Someone who indeed was very near to her among the dead.

Tossing the Daily Prophet into one of the fireplaces as she passed, Lylia strode from the Great Hall and rounded a corner to begin her trek back to the Ravenclaw Tower.

A week later she made the very same motion to depart from the Great Hall; an arm crossed in front of her, blocking her path as it connected to the wall beside her.

"Lylia," smiled Professor Lestoat courteously. "How was your vacation?"

She shuddered and took a tiny step back, into the corner. "It was quite enjoyable… And yours…?"

"As pleasant as always. I did, however… miss my students greatly." Lestoat leaned in to match the distance she retreated, preserving the same space between them.

"Professor!" called a thankfully-familiar voice from down the hall, at the entrance. There stood Aidon Haynes, his height increased by at least half a foot but his muscular width easily twice that he bore before. His previously lanky appearance had completely been shattered by this new, toned teen before them. "Professor Snape is calling you to the Astronomy Tower."

Lestoat growled in the back of his throat but made no objection, departing without a farewell to either of them.

"A-Aidon...?" Lylia openly stared. "What happened to you?"

The Prefect closed his eyes as proudly as always, pinkening childishly at the remark. "For your information, I simply stayed at my brother's farm. All of his farmhands were sick, so I did the work myself. That's all."

"Did Professor Snape really-?"

"No." The do-good Ravenclaw gave an almost-easygoing smile as he walked on past her. "Watch out for yourself, alright, Letum? I can't always be lying to save you."

Lylia shook her head incredulously, sinking dizzily to the floor once she found herself alone again.

"Lylia!" Kayla ran through the doors to Hogwarts, practically tackling the grounded blonde.

"Hiya, Kayla!" Lylia hugged her back almost as tightly, her smile blotting out any sign of the problem just passed. "Did you and Draco enjoy the time off?"

"Yeah!" The Slytherin stood, tugging Lylia up as well.

"How are the nightmares?"

Kayla's smile faded. "Hm…?"

"Karen told me you'd been having nightmares. She can't do anything about them, but she said you'd want me to know…" Lylia was looking past Kayla, into the Great Hall.

The brunette's brows furrowed. "How did she know something like that?"

"Karen's always known weird things… You and I both know that. But… Well, you just have to see for yourself. She's… different."

Kayla turned to follow Lylia's line of sight, finding Karen in the center of the Great Hall. "Oh my God…"

As Karen caught sight of the pair's gaze on her, she stood up and happily strode her way over to them. A new, enticing sway fell from her hips at every step, but the greatest change was above them. Her once-crazy hair fell in luxurious waves from a perfect scalp, her perfect face shone in the candlelight and firelight like an angel's features, and every flawless curve in her body didn't need to show itself for Kayla to know it was there.

"Hiya, guys!" Karen beamed brilliantly at them.

"Wow… Puberty's been very kind, huh…" Kayla mumbled her reply, still taken aback.

Lylia said nothing for some time, just eyeing Karen cagily. "I think I'll be heading up to bed," she finally spoke up, walking off in the direction of the Ravenclaw Tower.

"I think I made someone jealous," sighed Karen with a patronizing smile.

"I doubt that's the case," Kayla averted her eyes now as well, heading the opposite way to go to the Slytherin Dungeons.

Karen shrugged innocently before she went back into the Great Hall. "Whatever, I guess."

Melinda silenced her as she sat down again by stuffing a chicken leg into her mouth. "Just digest this, please. You make me worry."

Sulking where she sat by the Slytherin, Karen quickly spat out the chicken and waited for the hours to pass. "You think everything'll go back to normal now that classes will start again?"

Melinda turned a page in the Daily Prophet, not looking up:

"Since when are things _ever_ normal here?"


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Aurorn't You Glad I Didn't Say "Banana"

October came on the air's new chill and the leaves' new attire of colours. The wind itself became more frequent, urging the students of Hogwarts to spend their free time inside the castle walls. Kayla spent most of it studying her Transfiguration, and Lylia spent most of it reading in her favourite corner of the Library. Aside from hearing Madam Pince's complaints now and then of someone taking books secretly from the Restricted section, Lylia was able to read the Snape-given spellbooks in relative serenity. Her peace was shattered one day when, upon leaving the Library to go to breakfast, she was violently tackled in the Great Hall by Kayla and Karen.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" one shouted right after the other, dusting Lylia off after getting her back into her seat.

"What do you mean…?" the dazed blonde just stared.

"It's your birthday!" Kayla reminded with a grin. "October 14th! You're eighteen years old today!"

"I-I am?"

"You _are_!" confirmed Karen as she dropped a thin, wide box onto the table before the Ravenclaw. "Open it!"

"Alright, alright…" Smiling animatedly, Lylia took off the lid with a shift of cardboard. "Ooh… Karen, what exactly is it?" She lifted from the box a long, iridescent cloak that shimmered like a peacock's feather, all colours at the same time.

"Just an old coat I found here my first year," Karen rubbed the back of her neck with a wave. "It really can't fit me anymore though, so I figured you might like it!"

"I like it a lot," confirmed Lylia quickly. "Thank you!" She got up and unfolded the mantle, sliding it across her shoulders smoothly and tying it in place as its hem just barely brushed the floor. "Wow! It fits just like a glove!"

"I have _my_ gift for you too," Kayla extended her hand and dropped a pocketwatch onto Lylia's palm. Its silver exterior held an embossment of rhinestones along the rim of the clock face, and an elegant line of sapphires formed a calligraphic "L" on it.

"It's gorgeous!" Lylia carefully slid the present into her pants pocket after admiring it.

"Finally!" cried the overjoyed Aidon next to them. "Letum will FINALLY be on time!"

"_Whose_ birthday is it again?" asked Draco sarcastically of the girls as he cast Aidon a pointed look.

"Attention, please," McGonagall called out as she stood up, facing the congregation of breakfasting pupils. "The Ministry of Magic has brought it to Hogwarts' attention that its students are in danger, being so close to Hogsmeade and its recent attack." Every word leaving her mouth was marked with utter resentment for what she was being forced to allow. "In order to ensure the security and wellness of all the students here, it has been decided that the Ministry's most promising teams of Aurors-in-training shall… remain posted here at the school, for the rest of the year."

Without further warning, the Great Hall doors burst open and several lines of uniformed men, none out of their twenties yet, marched forward to the Staff Table. Their adornments were simple but efficient, the camouflage pattern asserting tactical planning and the identical Ministry of Magic badge on each left arm showing allegiance.

"It will be best to cooperate in total with each other," was all the man at their head stated, his keen eyes scanning over each face in the Hall and his hand bringing a momentary salute against his shaven, fedora-topped head. Lylia sank back onto her bench as his eyes passed over hers, doing her best to not seem conspicuous while wearing the _very_ conspicuous cloak.

Minutes of nervous silence followed this statement, as if the students were waiting for the man to go on. Eventually he just turned and marched left of the tables, departing from the hall with his teams behind him.

"Well _that_ was awkward," mumbled Karen.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," sighed Draco with a shake of his head after the group.

"You're welcome, Lieutenant Sarcasm," the redhead replied. "What's your take, General Humor?" She looked at Lylia.

"I deem Aidonfish to be Private Jokes."

"Hey now!"

"And Melinda is Major Pain," Kayla sought structure in the conversation once more, ignoring the protests of her other female housemate. "What're we gonna do about these guys…? They obviously aren't any sort of good news."

"Let's split up for an hour and think about it," Lylia suggested to them, thoughtfully toying with her black turtleneck's collar. "After the hour's up, we can meet up here again and decide then."

They jointly agreed and split up, each going their separate way to brainstorm. Melinda remained with Karen, reading the Daily Prophet and eating the meal Karen rejected. Draco went to be worshipped by his cronies, and Kayla went to visit Eli. Lylia just sat down in the Headmistress's chair once breakfast had ended, oblivious to the odd looks the other lingering students were giving her for it.

Kayla was effervescent in her joy to see the Occamy again, her mind having wandered to him more than once over break. She hoped the meat she had left him before departure had been enough to keep him good and content.

"Eli…?"

The only sound that responded to her was the wind's whistle through a shattered window. Drawing her robes a bit tighter in the chill of it, Kayla stepped across the dusty floorboards and examined the room closely for the serpent-bird.

"Eli? Where are you?"

The lock had been ripped from its place; and the window had been broken for good measure, leaving only shards behind it in the place of the glorious creature that once resided on its now-lonely perch in the corner.

Her heart sank far below its crucial area in her chest, and Kayla sank to the deserted floor. She lifted a single, lonely white feather that threatened to blow away on the trailing wind, her eyes mournful. "… Eli…"

As the hour had ended, the cluster of students had journeyed back to the Great Hall. Lylia was, as apparently expected, still in the Headmistress's chair.

"I've got nothing," Melinda sighed reluctantly.

"Same here," shrugged Draco.

"Nada," agreed Kayla.

"I may have something." Karen smiled. "But you won't like it, Lylia."

The blonde lowered her gaze from the candles to the redhead, balancing her wand on a fingertip. "… Well, let's hear it anyway."

"Elden Lesperance would know," the ginger proposed.

Lylia's wand fell, her concern for it absent. "… No."

"He's a fourth-year!" shrugged Karen defensively. "I've been around him for three years myself, and I can promise: if you're looking for the dark side of the Wizarding World, he'd be your best connection in a school. His family's world-renowned for its power and wealth, too. People with big purses hear big secrets. Not to mention, his family itself has been rumored to be involved with some pretty dark stuff."

Lylia eyed the floating candles once more, the clouds in the enchanted ceiling above them growing dark and gloomy. "… Alright. But we'll need to start looking immediately. No one's heard of him since…"

"Since the end of the tournament!" piped up Aidon. He sat at the Ravenclaw table not far from them, his attention primarily focused on the epic creation of a potato stick-figure from his food (but a Prefect's attention is never too singular for giving others privacy in their conversations. Hey: Prefects). "You're all quite moronic if you're going to be following _Lylia_ through this weird excursion."

"_This_ coming from a man quite busy creating the lovechild of Barbie and Mr. Potato Head?" Lylia scoffed.

"How are you gonna find the guy?" asked Aidon.

"We ask around, randomly visit the Library, and eat a Chocolate Cauldron along the way," declared Lylia with a victorious smirk and a dramatic pose. Karen threw in spirit fingers.

"It would be far more efficient to just split up your explorer friends and send them each to one House." Aidon gave a realistic Godzilla roar and bit off the head of his brainchild. When he looked up again, Lylia was standing right in front of him, smiling cheerfully.

"Great! We'll leave the Ravenclaws to you then, Aidon."

"M-me? I didn't volunteer! And why not you?"

"I have to interrogate- I mean, _question_ the Hufflepuffs! We don't have a Hufflepuff in our band of… explorers, Starfish. Therefore, you take us blues." Lylia then turned to her friends with a wave. "Meet-up will be dinner! Kayla, you take the Slytherins! Draco, you handle the ones you find on the Grounds! And Karen, you take the Gryffindors!"

"And me?" asked Melinda.

"Make sure Karen doesn't get herself hurt? These are Gryffindors we're dealing with."

She almost saw it coming. "… Right-o."

Time passed as it has a nasty habit of doing, and in that time absolutely every student of Hogwarts was asked the same question about the same student. Dinner time rolled around, and so the infiltrating information-gatherers conjoined their pieces of intelligence.

"We got… mail," Melinda said without a better euphemism, hefting a bag with Karen's aid onto the table before them. Aidon whimpered in defeat as the bag shoved his plate of Macaroni (& Cheese) Art off the wood.

"I didn't learn anything," the poor Prefect sighed. "All the girls just flaunted how they were closest to him, being in the same House, and several of the males ignored me completely…"

"What do you mean, 'mail?'" Lylia asked Melinda with a furrow of her brow, idly shoving Aidon down the bench and taking his place in front of the bag.

"This is full of letters and notes," Karen shrugged hopelessly and nodded at the strained, bulging bag. "Every one of them is addressed to that oh-so-mysterious Elden. About a dozen guys asked me out, but that's nothing compared to this…"

"Well, I didn't learn anything from the Hufflepuffs. But that's nothing new. What about you two, Kayla? Draco?" Lylia nodded to them.

"Zip." Kayla plopped into a seat a small ways down from the sack to heft her own up and set it on the table as well. "The Slytherin girls are all just as crazy and brainless about him as the others, apparently. But THIS bag has hatemail in it. Assorted kids learned how we were asking around, and so they started handing me hatemail to give to him."

In the silence that followed, all of them turned to Draco.

"… Aaand?" prompted Lylia.

"…" Eventually, the Slytherin boy gave in. "A few of them tried hitting me. Apparently, their girlfriends left them for that sod… And at least 99.99% asked if my relationship with Kayla was a cover-up for my intense love for Lesperance." Disgust coloured every word.

Kayla sighed in defeat for the mission, rubbing Draco's back comfortingly with one hand and munching on a chip from Aidon's plate with the other. "Don't be discouraged, Dra… They're just put-out because the best they could ever get would be a doped-up House Elf."

As she said this, Lylia coughed on a bite of an apple and looked at Kayla with the expression of epiphany. "A what?"

"A House Elf," repeated the brunette, her own expression hovering between amusement and worry when she saw Lylia's.

"That's it!" cried the blonde as she stood and flipped the folds of her new cloak over her shoulder, casting a rainbow of colour across the Great Hall as she ran wildly out into the corridor. Kayla thankfully was wary enough to get a good start not long after her, asking as she caught up-

"Lylia, where are we going?"

Karen and Melinda followed along behind, Draco and Aidon left with the bags. There wasn't much conversation between the two boys.

"We asked every student in the school and no one knows about Lesperance, right? And no one has reason to lie about him?" Lylia began to explain.

"Yeah, but no one knew anything!"

"If he's somewhere around Hogwarts, he has to be eating, right?"

"Yeah, but…!"

"His food must be coming directly from the guys feeding the students!" Lylia grinned widely at the deduction.

Kayla gasped in realization. "The House Elves in the Kitchens! They'll know!"

"Exactly!"

"So, why are we running the opposite way of the kitchens, Lyl?"

Lylia stopped. "… We are?"

About five minutes later, they arrived at the Kitchens. As Kayla led the way in, all the House Elves roused a cheer and swarmed to meet their favourite student with shouts of praise and admiration for Ms. Hartland.

"Hello, hello!" she nodded, her smile warm. "Call me Kayla, please. I missed you all! Could you tell me where Elden Lesperance is, please?"

A chorus of tiny shouts rang out.

"He's in the Tower!"

"The really tall one!"

"They're _all_ tall!"

"He's in the Dark Tower!"

Kayla looked around at them confusedly. "The what…?"

"It's alright, I know the place they're talking about," assured Lylia as she grabbed Kayla's wrist and took off again out of the Kitchens. "See ya, midgets!"

"Where did you two go?" demanded Draco a bit more worriedly than he'd admit as the infamous duo returned with Melinda and Karen, his mood bummed from being stuck with just Aidon and the nearby Auror trainee for company all dinner. Aidon had gone to bed since then, whining something about appreciation for art.

"We know where Lesperance is!" Lylia shouted, her feet not even stopping but continuing on by at her breakneck speed. "Get your broom and meet back here!"

"Why is she always getting us running?" sighed Melinda wearily, wiping her forehead as she and Kayla ran to the Slytherin girl dorms.

"You get used to it!" beamed Kayla to her with a friendly look.

"I guess you're right," the winded girl laughed.

"We'll need to probably sneak our way past the guards they might have at the front entrance," Kayla analyzed their situation once they were all gathered near the Staff Table with their brooms.

"How do we do that with these hugs bags of mail?"

"Honestly, Dra. Stop complaining and Charm them or something."

"…"

Thankfully, the entrance was unguarded, and the half-full moon over Hogwarts Castle bore witness to five students slipping out onto the Grounds, one of which was press-ganged into carrying two bags of mail.

Lylia was the first to slide onto her broom, the Silver Arrow taking off into the air with a small trail of sparkling dust fading on the wind behind her. Kayla was next, followed by Draco. Karen and Melinda brought up the rear, watching in case any letters fell or anyone showed up below them. Eventually the group seemed to reach its destination; Lylia dismounted on a small courtyard that sat atop one of Hogwarts' many Towers, a single cell in that courtyard's center. A dim firelight came from within that cell.

"Elden?" asked Karen carefully as she ran to the cell's bars, crouching close enough to the light for her form to be illuminated. Kayla stood beside her, Draco beside Kayla. A shadowed body sat in the corner of the cell furthest from his fire, his head lifting slightly at hearing the name but no noise coming from him.

"Hey, do you notice anything different about me?" smiled Karen more than a little seductively.

"… I don't care." The answer drifted apathetically but coldly from the man.

The redhead's jaw went slack as she stood, her gaze flaring up in anger before she stalked back to her deposited broom. "Fine. Whatever. I didn't even wanna see ya."

"Lesperance, we wanted to talk to you about the Aurors they've placed around the school," Melinda addressed the man from a small distance away, examining her nails. "Why'd you lock yourself up here like this?"

"… Like I said… I don't care… I'm here because I have no purpose…"

"What are you talking about?" Kayla frowned, trying to peer through the dark at the man. "Look, you're still needed here! So, you lost a battle. Dust yourself off and get back up!"

"She's right," agreed Draco as he dragged up the two bags of mail. "Look at all the people you've affected." He grabbed a handful of each bag and nudged them through the bars, into the prison.

Elden made no motion for some time, just staring down the mail. Then, with a flick of black wood's gleam in the dark, the love notes were all levitated a few inches. Kayla and Draco both leaned forward a bit despite themselves, hoping to finally elicit reason –or at least a bit of the usual shallow nature- from the man. Then, with another flick of the wand… all the love notes were upended in their bag over the fire. A small inferno went up as every last one of them burned to a crisp, briefly illuminating the perfect features of the half-Veela staring coldly at the flames.

"I don't care about them…" he said after a few more seconds. "The Aurors don't concern me either… Just leave me alone…"

Kayla's face didn't need the light of the fire for her fury to be apparent. "You don't CARE? You're a BASTARD! And a damned FOOL! You know what? You need to suck it up, grow a pair, and get the f-" Malfoy coughed. "- out of here!" Going and grabbing her broom, she glared over her shoulder at the dark prison cell. "No, nevermind; just stay up here, curl up, and rot!" Draco grimaced and followed after her on his own broom as she took back off for the main body of the castle. Karen wasted no time in trailing after them.

"Well, this went well," was all Melinda sighed before she remounted her Cleansweep, mockingly saluting Lylia and descending after the others.

"And _you_?" asked Elden after the uneasy silence had been borne between the two Ravenclaws long enough for his satisfaction.

Lylia turned her gaze up to the stars; her resolve to question the man melted completely away yet again. "… What _about _me?"

"Do you have a letter too?" taunted the bitter voice from the blackness.

"… No." She swallowed, eyes glued firmly to the heavens.

"If you don't ask me your questions, I can't possibly answer you…" It goaded further. A glint of the man's fake grin was visible through the abyss.

Lylia continued to hang back by the rim of the tower for a few moments, but then she stepped forward to the bars, gripping them solidly as she forced herself to ask:

"Why are the Aurors getting involved at Hogwarts?"

"If Hogwarts' mudblood _champion_ doesn't know, how should _I_?"

Lylia gasped a bit. Her eyes welling up with unshed tears at hearing the sharp insult, she lowered her head and blinked a few times, trying to fight the pain down. "… If I didn't need your help, I wouldn't have come here. You don't understand all that's going on! I heard about these Addonexi and, and these Aurors- it feels like they can look right through me, and-"

"You need my help for nothing, mudblood... You're beyond help."

Just nodding quietly in resignation, Lylia released the bars and went to collect her Silver Arrow. A minute of seconds were marked only by her footsteps and quiet.

A broken growl came deep within the cell, angered by her lack of rebuttal. "_What_? Why won't you shoot me down, you damn girl, for insulting you? Why aren't you infuriated? Why don't you JUDGE ME like them?"

"I've lost what's most important to me as well," she stated with a terrible softness. The yelling from the self-imposed prison stopped.

"… Wait," he stated.

She froze as she was about to leave, looking again over her shoulder at the small fire. It cast light on numerous stacks of books along the wall closest to the flame, all with dark and ancient bindings, but shed no light on the man it was trying to warm.

"Where did you get that cloak?" Elden inquired with reservation.

Lylia glanced at the iridescent mantle she wore. "… It was a gift. I don't know where Karen got it. Today's my birthday."

A purely nefarious chuckle echoed around the cell. "No wonder you think they can look right through you, wearing a cloak like_ that_. I seem to know a lot that you _don't_ know… about yourself. I wonder what you'd give me for telling you."

Leaving a final exhale in defeat behind, Lylia mounted her broom and flew away to Ravenclaw Tower.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: It's a Creeper-beat-Creeper World

(I swear, Lylia keeps getting tossed around like a shiny among magpies or a bit of meat among wolves. Why can't any guys her own age act that way over her? Gah. I give up.)

"They're following students," commented Lylia casually at breakfast about a week after the Aurors were installed.

"They're creepers," replied Kayla with just as much nonchalance, pointedly not looking at the ones posted around the Hall.

"I _do_ so love waffles," added Aidon through a mouthful of one.

"You mean they're following _you_, don't you." Kayla bit into some tart.

"Yeah." Lylia drank some juice.

"You haven't been sleeping at all, have you." Some more tart.

"Nope." Some more juice.

"You've been talking to that dead woman, haven't you." The rest of the tart.

"Sure have." The rest of the juice.

"Lylia?"

"Yes, Kayla?"

"You've somehow turned Hogwarts into a breeding ground for stalkers."

"Thank you, Kayla. You're a wonderful person too."

"Pass the waffles, Letum."

"Hey, Haynes. Bite me."

Kayla's own sleep was not going perfectly either, however. Once a particularly vivid nightmare ghosted her from her bed in fright, and she immediately decided that Detention wasn't so bad if she got caught being up. Her robes shrugged on quickly, she hurriedly strode to McGonagall's office.

"I-I have a problem, Professor McGonagall…" The Slytherin's eyes were wide, and pure fear's remnants remained embodied in their shine.

"What is it, dear…?" McGonagall asked as she ushered Kayla inside her unlit office.

"They're my nightmares, Professor. Only… They seem far too vivid to be just dreams… I don't know how to put it!"

"Karen Goldberg has informed me of these dreams as well, saying you'd be having them too." The Professor looked skeptical but at the same time concerned. "What do these dreams entail?"

Kayla glanced down at her shaking hands, trying repeatedly to calm her voice in her explanation but only getting tenser and tenser. "T-there are men, in black robes… It's always starting with Lylia running into t-that fire of the Three Broomsticks… But then it changes…! There's chanting, and, and sulfur…"

McGonagall drew the terrified girl into a hug and rubbed her back; she said as comfortingly as possible after some time, "Ms. Hartland, I have no way of stopping these dreams… But I know of someone who does."

Teacher and student made the trip back to the Dungeons, going to ask Professor Snape for a sleeping draught and get the girl back to her bed.

While they did so, Lylia padded through the winding towers until scaling the Divination one, tracking down her eccentric psychic teacher.

"Professor Trelawney…?" She called to no answer.

"… Professor Trelaw-"

"Yes, my child?" asked the woman at the classroom's center, making Lylia jump.

"Oh, hello, Professor. I was… wondering if you could help me figure out this problem I have. My mind seems rather jumbled and confused lately, and it won't let me sleep…" Lylia slowly, cautiously went up beside Trelawney.

"I could look into your mind, yes, dearie." Trelawney stood and took Lylia's hands rather abruptly, but to no apparent surprise from the blonde. "I must ask you remain completely still, so that I may examine your aura as best as possible."

Lylia complied with the best of her own ability, closing her eyes and trying to keep her mind open. As her teacher released her hands, she pictured doors opening, windows being thrown open, gates being raised, clouds parting… Nothing noticeable happened.

"… Professor Trelawney?" she tried asking without moving her lips much.

Again, no answer.

Opening her eyes, she looked down. "Professor?"

Trelawney had silently fallen into a heap on the classroom carpet, eyes closed as if in sleep.

Lylia flipped out as she crouched by the comatose teacher. "T-Trelawney! Sybil? Psycho-lady-whose-help-I-needed? Come on, don't be dead!" She put a hand at the teacher's throat.

"A pulse! SCORE!"

The student bolted off to find Trelawney some help of her own.

Karen and Melinda sat side-by-side at lunch, toying with their new rings.

"Where'd you say you got these, Karen?" asked Melinda curiously.

"They were in the Room of Requirement!"

"Meaning they're not yours?"

"They are now," smiled Karen cheerfully. She concentrated on a single message and gave the ring a squeeze.

Melinda glanced down as her own ring began to press on her finger in response. Sliding it off her finger, she read the formed inscription on its inner ring:

"'I heart Lestoat'?"

"Yep."

"… Did you seriously just send me that, Karen? Really?" Melinda shook her head in pity.

"What? What'd I do?" Karen pouted.

That afternoon as Lylia exited the Hospital Wing where Trelawney was resting in her mysterious (and maybe… mystical?) new coma, she noticed she was being tailed by three of the Auror visitors. Uneasy but not alarmed, the Ravenclaw slinked her way to hide in the Room of Requirement and sat before the Mirror of Erised in solitude. Her semblance of company was present only in the boy she saw herself embracing in the ephemeral peace of the reflection. A mop of shaggy brown hair fell in front of his eyes, but his smile was soft and genuine, like it always had been.

"… Talem, where can you be...? I won't believe them… You're not dead…

"Why aren't you beside me?"

"She's late again," Kayla announced fifteen minutes after dinner began.

"You'd think she'd be punctual after you gave her that watch!" mourned Aidon into his fish and chips.

Melinda twitched as her patience evaporated. "That's it- I'm going to go find her. It's better than sitting around here and listening to His Majesty whining. I'll send a message to Karen's ring if I locate her."

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Karen distractedly agreed, her eyes glued to a certain teacher at the Staff Table who eyed her flirtatiously in turn.

Lylia eyed the corridor before her carefully as she exited the Room of Requirement. At first it seemed clear; but as she began her journey down the hall, a collective squad of the Auror trainees rounded the corner and blocked her path.

"REALLY?" she demanded.

"Halt!" one shouted.

"Screw that!" yelled the girl in answer as she took off in the opposite direction.

Melinda was about to start up the staircases to look for Lylia when the Ravenclaw she was seeking bolted past and down one of the enchanted stairwells.

"Hi, Melissa! 'Bye, Melissa!" yelped Lylia in her fleeing from the cluster of uniformed men who just barely managed to not shove Melinda off the side of the stairs.

"It's 'Melinda,' actually!" the Slytherin tried valiantly to shout to her, but Lylia was by now out of earshot. Sighing, Melinda concentrated on a message and fidgeted with the ring on her finger.

"It's Melinda!" beamed Karen as she slid off the vibrating gold band. "It says… 'Trouble. Toward the…_ Libra'_?"

"Library." Kayla slid off her seat and ran out without giving her food a final resting place. Aidon shockingly did the same, almost weeping as he abandoned the meatloaf. Draco followed Kayla with not nearly as many complaints.

Already out of breath, Lylia raced past the once-safe Library and continued on down the torchlit halls. Aside from a couple late students or random teacher the pathway was deserted. This aid helped little due to Lylia's innate ability to get herself lost, and soon she ran straight into an iron grate door.

"OF COURSE there is a RANDOM FENCE DOOR THING at HOGWARTS!" she shouted irritatedly as she shook at the cell entrance.

"Stop right there!" cried the men as they fanned out at the intersection of her little alcove and the other hall.

"Where else COULD I go?" shouted the irked blonde back at them. "THROUGH the bars?"

"Melinda says she's at the Dark Tower's base," huffed Karen as she ran alongside Kayla, now sliding her ring back on. "Just a little more of a ways down!"

Sure enough, they soon met up with a winded Melinda and, wands drawn, sprinted with her to the semicircle of foes. While the majority of the opposition whirled to face the new challengers to their command, the fedora-clad leader raised his wand as Lylia's hand glided toward her wand pocket.

"Let's all just calm down," he smiled condescendingly around. "We simply wish to ask Letum here a few questions about Professor Trelawney's indisposal."

"Why does that take a dozen people?" asked Aidon.

"Because your little friend has a bad habit of slipping away from pursuit and confrontation!" answered Sir Fedora.

"That's not very fair," chimed in Lylia.

"Fairness is unnecessary when you have authority!" the leader snapped and again pointed his wand at her. "Now you either all SHUT up and I get my answers, or Letum here is finished with her lifetime as a witch!"

"Touch her, and I swear I'll kill you." A black mist sprang out from the air's moisture in accompaniment to this growled promise, leaving behind a familiar foe as it faded; donned in a midnight-hued robe, his natural jet-black hair hanging down in front of a pair of murderous purple-blue eyes, Elden Lesperance stood in front of Lylia, his black wand raised and aimed directly at the leader's heart. His clear, perfectly pale skin shone in the light without a hint of sweat, showing his absolute calm.

Within moments, the entire mini-herd of Aurors had bolted back the way they came, their once-advantageous numbers forgotten in fear for that one man. Kayla wasn't sure whether she should be more surprised by the disappearance of one group or the reappearance of the other. Lylia's eyes remained remarkably close to the size of saucers during the brief standoff, but her usual cool returned once more after the Ministry agents had fled. In a swirl of Elden's cloak the two had their wands prodding each other's throats, black wood pressed against white as their holders shared a fiery stare.

Karen, Aidon, Draco, and Melinda openly gawked in the meantime.

Elden jerked back his wand at length, giving Lylia a dark grin. "You're welcome."

"The hell are you doing here?" she replied curtly.

"No, really. The pleasure was all mine," he smirked between black bangs at her as he put away his wand once more.

"So the rumors are true? That black smoke- Necromancy! The Lesperances _are_ necromancers!" piped up Karen. She was promptly ignored.

"You can lower your own wand now too," Elden smiled at the still-defensive blonde, who inchingly lowered the white rod. "That's a girl…"

"Are you staying?" asked Kayla as she observed the exchange suspiciously.

"Henh." The revealed necromancer threaded a hand through his hair and looked around at the congregation. "… Hardly." His sharp eyes flicked over and sized up Lylia. "You. Do you really have NO idea about them? The Addonexi?"

Lylia, unpleasantly reminded of her last conversation with the man, glowered. "… None."

"I suppose it _would_ take a necromancer to piece it all together. They're literally 'Bringers of Death.' The acquisition of Death itself is their goal. Or should I say Death _herself_?"

"What do they want with Lylia?" attempted Kayla.

Lylia tried to answer for Elden. "Nothing! They don't have ANY business with me-"

"Their business is with Death," hissed Elden, "And you ARE Death."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous!"

"Ridiculous, am I?" Indigo eyes turned steely as Elden leaned a hand on the grating behind Lylia, forcing her to back up against it in order to avoid his closeness. "Let me guess. You've had the worst luck with people dying wherever you've gone, right? Animals hate you, don't they? Then there's the attack by that Lethifold in broad daylight, the goddamn infuriating affiliation for kelpies, and a macabre card reading or two."

A flush of mortification crept its way into Lylia's cheeks as she listened to the senior student looming over her, her eyes lowering in defeat. Elden gave another grin.

"… How do we stop them?" Kayla asked.

"It's Hogwarts. They may never get here." The black-haired man straightened and focused his penetrating eyes on the rest of the group. "You guys have bigger problems, like that group of Aurors. They're been sheltered by the Ministry of Magic, and they'll play by their own rules as long as any playground brute can."

"So what do_ you_ care?" frowned Karen as she flipped some red locks over her shoulder.

Kayla looked thoughtful, but a playful gleam was in her eyes. "Well, he IS a necromancer. I wouldn't be surprised if he wants a piece of Little Miss Letum." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, smirking. "And I'm not talking about the power."

Elden took in a deep, calming breath to avoid killing anyone. "I am seeking my purpose in life. I… want simply to be worthy in the eyes of the one who defeated me."

"So, Letum, then." Melinda raised an eyebrow.

"It looks like we have a new team member!" grinned Kayla as she nudged Draco.

"I would rather perish." Elden shook his head disdainfully. "Goodbye."

Kayla broke into a fit of laughter after he had vanished again into black mist. "Poor, arrogant prick!"

Lylia raised a hand to the evaporating mist, slowly threading her fingers through it as it faded away. "... Wow…"

"It's still dinnertime," Aidon hurriedly began to prod the other students back toward the Great Hall. "C'mon, c'mon- maybe dessert's up!"

"I _would_ like some chocolate-covered strawberries…" Lylia thought aloud as she finally consented to returning.


End file.
